


Being The Luminary

by KKristof100



Category: Dragon Quest Series, Dragon Quest VIII, Dragon Quest XI
Genre: Crossover, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:34:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 35,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24753247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KKristof100/pseuds/KKristof100
Summary: This is the English translation of my own fan fiction book of Dragon Quest 8 and 11 crossover that had been originally released in February, 2018 (in Japanese) at the Square Enix fan event "Twinkle Mirage 8".Although it's based after of the ending of DQ8, the hero and Jessica are not married, just engaged, and as a result of a strange incident, they will be able to go to Erdrea of DQ11.The names of the heroes are simply "Eight" and "Eleven" as their default names are in the games.I've not played the English version of either original game, only learned the English names of the characters, spells, etc. from the net, so there might be dialogues sound different or even strange from the players of the foreign versions.I've tried to keep the special dialects but they're far from perfect. I've also changed some texts purposely in order to avoid copyright violation.The characters of the "ages of heroes" of DQ11(like Erdwin or Serenica) speak Modern Standard English, not the "Early Modern" one in this story.
Relationships: Hero (Dragon Quest VIII)/Jessica (Dragon Quest)
Kudos: 1





	Being The Luminary

~Part 1~

"Since one day, I've begun to see a strange dream. What is strange about it is that it seems so realistic like I feel as I had actually done those things. At the beginning, I had no clue about its meaning..."

1

In the morning at the castle of the Albert family in Alexandria, Jessica was awakened by the sunlight shining from the space of the curtains.

"Where...am I...?"

She looked around like being still only half awake, then felt her body, opened the curtains as wide as they go, and, when finally looked into the mirror, she felt some relief.

"A dream..."

She saw a long strange dream that brought her heart a little fear or an anxiety about the unknown. She lost in her thoughts for a while and came to her sense when the maid knocked the door.

"Good morning Eight! Sorry, I think I overslept..."

After defeating Rapthorne, the lord of the darkness, the great hero Eight and his companions reunited to attend the wedding of Princess Medea of Trodain and Prince Charmles of Argonia. However, kings of both Argonia and Trodain agreed with that Charmles was far from being ready to even have a wife and the marriage was broken off. Thereupon they thought Eight who turned out to be the son of Eltrio, Clavius' elder brother, was the one who had the right to marry the princess, all the more so they'd known each other from their childhood. However, Eight was already fallen in love with Jessica whom he fought with through the whole severe trip of hunting the dark lord. Finally he confessed his feelings to Jessica who loved him as well and became her fiancé.

After that, Eight and Jessica stayed in Alexandria and had a rest. By giving the promise to his future mother-in-law that they were going to share the bedroom only after the wedding, Eight was permitted to live in the original residence of Count Alberts' family.

Today, Eight came down first from the guestroom for breakfast and heard the above-mentioned words from the late-comer Jessica.

"Jessica, are you alright?" asked Eight. He looked at his rarely beautiful fiancée with a face of much worrying.

"Why?" replied she. "In fact I saw a strange dream last night, but I'm fine now".

"A dream?"

Eight referred back with knitting his brows. It seemed like he was not the only one worrying. Rosalind who sat on the opposite of the long dining table also had a serious expression on her face.

"Hey, what on earth is the matter with you two?!"

Hearing that, the mother stood up from the chair.

"Jessica, you say you don't remember what happened yesterday at all?!"

2

One morning before, when the maid carried the breakfast tea to her mistress' room, Jessica was still sleeping but woke up soon, probably because of the sound of the closing door, and suddenly made a noise that could be felt even hysterical for the maid so she ran back and peeked into the room.

"What's this?! Did I get my ages back?!"

Jessica was screaming such a nonsense touched all the part of her body impatiently and massaged her big brilliant breasts.

"No!" cried she."This is NOT my body!...What's this...this shape?!Even Jade would be jealous about it!"

After she mentioned a name which was not familiar, Jessica looked into the mirror and gave a shriek even louder, so the maid ran into the bedroom.

"Is anything wrong, Miss Jessica?"

"...Jessica...?"

She looked at the maid and repeated her own name like she had forgotten it.

"Do you have any problem, Miss?"

The maid found nothing wrong even after she looked around the room. Her mistress kept silence for a while and finally answered with a voice as vacant as like her soul were wondering somewhere else.

"No...it's nothing..."

She said so and lied on her bed in order to fall asleep again, but soon she found it impossible. The more she buries her face in the pillow, the more she becomes anxious about the situation she cannot recognize. She stayed in her nightclothes until she heard the gong of breakfast.

"What happened to you my dear? Don't you feel alright?"

Finally when she came downstairs to the hall, her mother asked worriedly. Eight, who was worrying too of course, would have gone to call her much before if it had been their usual situation during the trip, but he felt it would have been rather rude at this kind of aristocratic castle to go to a young woman's room to wake her up, even when it's his fiancée, so he had been just waiting downstairs with his future mother-in-law. Jessica seemed she still couldn't grasp the situation. It took some time even for recognizing Lady Rosalind as her mother, and when she said jocosely that "Sir Eight would probably be very disappointed if he knew he married a girl so careless after he did", Jessica was surprised like she would have heard about the engagement for the first time.

"I hope it's not a kind of aftereffect of the curse of Rapthorne that once controlled her mind" thought the worrying fiancé. There was no any ominous sign, but Eight recalled the painful memories when he had to fight against her in order to save her, and somehow felt the same stress that she had shown after she was purified and fell into coma in Arcadia. Eight squinted seriously. In fact, when they came back to Alexandria after the event in Arcadia and received Alistair's armor, Eight had told Lady Rosalind a little about that they'd had to save Jessica who'd been haunted by the dark god when she had taken its wand in hand, but he hadn't told particularly that Jessica had become like a monster for a short time. Jessica wished to keep it in secret before her mother and Eight felt the same. However, if Jessica still has the feeling of that dread memory, they may have to tell the whole story to Rosalind.

"...I did what?!"

After they were left alone, Eight came out with that idea, but Jessica seemed like she didn't remember that thing either.

"You say...you've forgotten the whole story?!"

If so, it would be the best as Eight thought but it sounded incoherent with what Jessica had said so far.

"Oh, I don't mean that, but..."

She denied it by gesturing with her hands, but it looked like she was trying to adapt herself to Eight because she looked him really surprised. Only her tones were familiar, showing a bold girl like she always has been and that made Eight relieved a little.

"If there's some problem, you must tell me! I suppose you know but I'm always there to help you!"

"Yes...thanks!" Said she, but in her mind there was a big confusion.

"I can't really get it but the guy who was supposed to be this Jessica's fiancé seems to be tender and even if it's a dream I have to try to behave naturally!"

This was what the beautiful girl was thinking. Actually she didn't even know where she was or what has happened to her. Eight spoke by giving a smile.

"Then, would you prepare...?"

"For what?"

"Oh, you said we pay a visit to Alexandra's statue today..."

"Oh, yes, yes, of course I remember! Then, why don't we just go?! Come on!"

This time, her behavior was unnaturally in high spirits. "What happened to her? Did she found this peaceful life boring after they had the harshest travel around the whole world fighting with the most ferocious monsters for a long time?" Being a former soldier in a king's palace, Eight had seen some colleagues changed because they had spent too long in a battlefield, and in fact, He thought himself will feel unsatisfied in the future if he doesn't gratify his passion to fight against the evil by becoming the guard of the village and running after human criminals as Alistair did before. In this case it would be good for Jessica to revive the feelings of the adventure, so going to the Tower of Alexandra seemed to be just the best idea.

So the two decided to go to the tower on foot although it takes a little time. There still might be monsters lurking around. Those huge dark beasts that came with Rapthorne's rebirth had vanished as soon as the appeared but the ones like bodkin archers or hammerhoods that inhabited from much before were still seen although the cases their attacked people have declined significantly. Eight walked by searching for sign of those monsters and also watched how Jessica behaves, but she was strangely quiet. However, the gestures she had often done, folding her hands and stretching were the same as usual, and she gave a smile anytime she did it. It could give the impression that she hadn't slept enough, but it was more like she wants to reach as high as she can. When they get close enough to see the tower, Eight put his palm to his forehead for the purpose of cutting the sunlight and watched the sky carefully.

"Yeah, I thought there still were monsters around"

"Really?"

Jessica watched the same direction and found that there were some creatures not too far from them that were flying differently from any birds but obviously heading for the tower.

"They must be drackmages!" said Eight.

"Oh, then there's no problem! I've defeated them even when I couldn't use my magical power!" replied Jessica. Eight once felt strange again hearing that. He couldn't remember a case like that during their past travel, but it could have been before they met. Probably when Jessica was a kid and couldn't use magic at all, she had to fight against dracmages. What drew Eight's attention more was a group of different monsters also flying towards the tower. They were farther away than the drackmages but even then looked bigger.

"Are they...hawk men?"

"Hawk men?"

This time it was like Jessica heard that monster's name for the first time, but it was right, several hawk men, monsters with the similar size but much more power than average humans were flying toward the Tower of Alexandra.

"Jessica, can you get them all at once?"

"What?...Oh, of course! Leave it to me!"

So far, Jessica had behaved a little strangely on that day, but this time, she centralized her magical power and shot a big sphere to the sky.

"BOOM!"

In the next moment, a big, horrible explosion broke out among the monsters on the air. It had so much energy that not only the drackmages but also the hawk men were scattered like feathers so far away that they couldn't see them anymore. The big explosion echoed its sound from the wall of the still far standing Tower of Alexandra, and if it had been closer, it could have destroyed the whole building.

"Jessica! Why do you cast Boom?! With your power of magic, Bang is more than enough!"

This man, who had been so considerate and solicitous so far, this time had to scold her in severe tone.

"Oh, my gosh! This girl has a tremendous magical might!...Oh, yeah, they said she was one of them who'd saved this world! So that would mean..."

"Jessica! Really what happened to you?! You've been pretty weird since this morning!"

The girl came to her sense after being lost in several thoughts. Found she'd better evade the man's question.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, honey! Was it too harsh? I can't help myself 'cause I'm the mighty magician Ver...hm...Jessica!"

Eight looked at her seriously by folding his arms. "There's something definitely wrong" thought he. But the girl didn't give him a time to think much, she pulled his hand.

"Well...anyway, why don't we hurry?"

When they entered to the tower, Jessica didn't know how to open the gate, and as praying before the statue of her ancestor Alexandra, she was fascinated like she'd never seen it before, and even said "It's like the statue of Serenica", mentioning a name Eight had never heard. Eight became more and more anxious seeing her giving a different impression all day.

"What?! I really did those things yesterday?!"

Next morning, when Jessica was told about her behaviors on the previous day, she just couldn't remember anything at all and every word made her surprised. This day it was clear that she was herself again neither Eight nor Rosalind had a clue about her change one day before.

"Oh, that dream...it can't be..."

It just flashed into Jessica's mind. In fact, when she woke up this morning and saw her desk, she found a note said written in huge capital letters. "WHO ARE YOU?!" That was what it said. Rosalind said to her murmuring daughter in calm voice.

"Jessica, you should tell everything you remember about the dream you saw last night!"

"Oh...yeah..."

3

On the morning in question, Jessica, who was sure that she had fallen asleep in her bedroom, found herself somewhere in a forest. It was like the period she was traveling with Eight and others. Under the open sky, near the campfire. She recognized some other people bundled up in sleeping bags or blankets.

"Where the deuce am I?!"

It was so early that sun was just about to rise, and as she heard the breathing of sleeping people in the twilight, she naturally lowered her voice, but she couldn't understand anything. Anything seemed queerly big, like her body had shrunk. She didn't remember about the clothes she was wearing either. She heard the sound of a flowing water so she ran to the river desperately and saw her face reflected in the water.

"What the heck?! Who is this?!"

What she saw on the water surface was a seven-eight year-old little girl with blond braids.

"What's going on?! Why did I become like this?!"

"A re you alright, dear twin sis?"

As the result she had been so noisy, the companions woke up one after another. The one who came to her first was a young beautiful girl with long blond hair and a modest, ladylike atmosphere. Actually she looked like the child she saw on the water surface but she was grown up.

"Twin?! You mean...?"

Somehow she turned to a little girl, and then, a girl looks like the same age to the original herself calls her a "twin sister". Jessica got confused even more.

"Hey, Veronica, what the hell is the matter after such a long time?! You said you've got used to it!"

A thin built handsome but sleepy faced guy with a blue sharp-pointed hair walked nearby, calling her by a name she'd never heard.

"Oh, don't be like that, Erik! It must have been the worst nightmare for Veronica when she was captured and drained her age that she still can't get back!"

"Oh, I see! So you're still half asleep after a bad dream!"

From what the girl calls herself her sister spoke to the guy called Erik, Jessica learned a little bit. So this kid she unwillingly transformed to is called Veronica, and she supposed to be a grown up girl but for some reason she had been drained her magical power and her age and managed to get back only the former. The other girl who's said to be her twin sister is called Serena.

"What happened? Monsters?"

That was a question by a young woman with splendid moving, giving the impression of a martial artist. She looked to be in her early twenties, possessing a brilliant figure like the real Jessica had. Her ponytailed long beautiful hair, her almond-shaped eyes also reminded Red the thief whom Jessica had traveled with.

"Good morning Princess Jade!" said Serena soon politely. Erik told her the situation.

"There's nothing particular, we just have a kid still couldn't wake up from a dream!"

"Hey, who are you talking about?!"

Jessica still couldn't get the situation but she reacted naturally. But it seemed to be the usual reaction of that Veronica-girl, so nobody felt it odd.

"Okay, then, finally Sylv and the old chap woke up too!"

To Jessica, "Sylv" sounded like a nickname of "Sylvia", but she couldn't find another woman around. The girl she had turned into was Veronica, her sister was Serena, and the sexy martial artist was called Jade. There was no fourth woman.

"Oh, darling, you are so noisy that I had to wake up! It's not good to my skin to not have enough beauty sleep!"

Jessica in the little girl's shape made a little weird expression for a moment. This guy who called himself "Sylvando" looked like a traveling performer and spoke like a woman.

"But anyway, you must be quiet! Eleven darling is still asleep!"

Sylvando turned down his voice and pointed at a one who was still sleeping. There was a boy lying on the blanket. His features told about an innocent child but his muscles were trained as much as it could be seen even from over the clothes and the blanket. His hair was smooth as a woman's, as it was divided on his forehead even when he was lying reminded both Angelo and Princess Medea to Jessica.

"As the laddie's sleeping, he look much like my daughter Eleanor was little" said the old man called Rab who was the sleeping boy's grandfather, and looked at him pleasantly. They all had a sense of guilt about waking him up. Jessica, who met him for the first time thought it was a little overprotective, but even her could feel that the sixteen year-old boy called Eleven was not just one of the crowd.

"That mark on his hand..."

Sleeping with left hand pun on the front, the sign of the Luminary was clearly visible, and it made Jessica curious even in this situation.

"Oh, Veronica, you're talking about it like you'd have never seen it before!" said Serena.

"Exactly! Since when have you been as an airhead as your sister?"

Erik said something again that Jessica wanted to turn on, but all the others gave them a sign to keep quiet.

"Yeah, the mark of the Luminary! For a long time in our royal family of Dundrasil, we've been waiting for its second advent! I used to sigh over that I couldnae have it myself!"

Rab started to tell a long story that was boring for the others but it unexpectedly helped Jessica to know a little about the world where she actually was. So Rab used to be a king and his grandson Eleven was said to be the reincarnation of the legendary hero, believed that he was the one who brings hope and peace to the whole world.

"So I'm traveling with a hero again! What a weirdly realistic dream!"

As Jessica thought that, Eleven seemed to be awaken at last.

"Good morning everyone!...what's the matter?"

"Oh, we all were waiting for you wake up, darling!" Said Sylvando. Eleven, the Luminary rose up from the ground. As he opened his eyes, he looked more stirring. Jessica has been with Eight for a long so she could tell the unique countenance that one who's called the Luminary has.

"The Rainbough is reacting! The orb must be somewhere near!"

"Yeah! You're supposed to be the leader, so why don't you lead us?!"

"Okay..."

After Eleven had prepared, he gave the instructions. Jessica finally recognized the type of the place they were. The "Eerie Eyrie" was a valley among the mountains, traversed by a river with numbers of waterfalls. It was plenteous in beauties of the nature but also infested with ferocious monsters. Eleven the Luminary took on a white shining armor over the brown and purple clothes he wore during asleep, and a helmet matching the armor. It was what the highest ranked soldiers used to equip in his ruined homeland, the kingdom of Dundrasil. He gripped a platinum sword in his right hand, and Jessica, when saw his equipment, she noticed about her own, or accurately what that girl called Veronica equipped. She had a lightning staff. Jessica knew this weapon very well. Considering Eleven's weapon too, and the fact that they'd come to a place like that, she reached to the conclusion that the enemies' strength was similar to that in the area of Argonia or the Dark Ruins where they'd defeated Dhoulmagus if she compared it with the world she came from.

"Veronica, you've forgotten your robe!"

Serena brought the robe of serenity for her. Jessica started to remember that she had probably worn it when she woke up. I had a miraculous magical power that protects the wearer while he's asleep. When she put it on her red cloth, the party began to step forward. They went toward the upper reaches of the river and climbed the rocks holding on the ivies hanging near the waterfall. Jessica still didn't get used to that she became much smaller so she couldn't reach the edge of the cliff but Serena who was going after, pushed her up. Then, she saw something she remembered of. There were two green fat dragons coming, as big as she could easily identify them even from far away.

"Dragurns?!"

She was surprised seeing the same monsters appear in her world, but if it was really a dream it would show images of real memories.

"Are the called so? Have you seem them before, Veronica?"

It seems her companions saw those monsters for the first time. While they were flurried, Jessica in a small girl's figure jumped out and cast the spell of Crackle in order to repulse their firing breathes. However, she couldn't get the expected effect. This girl called Veronica supposed to have a great talent of a sorcerer like herself, but it still hadn't been awakened and Jessica found that to use the spells with the same sense she fought against Lord Rapthorne would be dangerous. Erik threw the boomerang quickly after her, and during that, Eleven collected the power of lightning around his sword and ripped the two beasts with a Gigaslash. Its power was far from the one that Eight used but it was a close type of attack. One dragurn was defeated and the other one stood up with difficulty but was knocked down soon by Serena's Swoosh. It was a perfect teamwork but if the one who was going to put this world in danger had a same power as Rapthorne had had, this party would need much more training to fight against him. That was what Jessica thought but she couldn't bethink for a long time because the next monsters appeared soon. These ones were new to Jessica, looked like weird egg-shaped metal vehicles.

"What's...that?!"

The two creatures were called "rotten eggsoskeletons". There are especially strong springs inside their legs that make them be able to jump extremely high but their specific structure is unknown for any human. According to Erik, there are smaller and weaker monsters of this type called eggsoskeleton that he had ridden on when he'd traveled alone with Eleven. They can't stand the power of lightning so Eleven could defeat them with one Gigaslash but the mysterious operators inside disappeared soon like a spirit passed away. It was like a cannibox, nobody could catch what controlled the object.

"So if we use these, we can move to higher points like before!" Said Eleven to Erik.

"Yeah, these are much bigger and look more massive than the ordinary eggsoslkeletons, so we can tuck into all of us if we divide into two groups!"

The companions two teams, men and women. For this time, Jessica found lucky to have changed to a kid. She could easily sit on the lap of Serena or Jade.

"...Aand...what should we do with these?"

Inside the machine, Jessica looked down under her feet. There were some kind of pedals that she couldn't reach in her actual form but jumped off his sister's lap and tried to push them.

"Aargh! It's so hard...!" Slogged Jessica as she was trying the pedals hopelessly.

"Don't struggle with your size, Veronica! Leave it to me!"

Saying that, Jade moved to the center and started to pump the pedals mutually with her legs. The cog wheels connected to it began to spin slowly and the whole metal building moved forward.

" So these are the legs of a martial artist!" Thought Jessica. "If I were just not in this form...!"

Jessica felt a little vexing but she moved back to her place and helped Serena to pull the direction sticks that lead the machine to left and right.

"I think we can go now..."

When she thought so, another one jumped in behind the three girls.

"Oh, Rab honey and his big belly! It makes the four of us impossible to fit in one egg! I should have been in the girl's team from the beginning!"

Sylvando broke into grumbling out like that. So they couldn't avoid to be jam-packed. Regardless of that, Jessica should have been disgusted with that performer's behavior who bundles himself among three girls, but somehow she couldn't feel Sylvando too indecent. He had an aura or something telling he might really consider himself as "she".

Finally the two rotten eggsoskeletons began to march forward and when they pulled the hanging chain strongly, they succeeded to overcome some hard level differences by jump. But in these vehicles, they couldn't think about fighting. The metal eggs might save them from the attack of the enemies, but make the attack impossible for themselves. The seven adventurers got off the vehicles after the road became relatively flat A short after the heard some birds of prey screaming and saw their huge shadows on the ground. There were some Hades condors high above. And at the same time, Eleven who walked at the head noticed about the approach of other enemies. Those were demonriders riding on mysterious six-legged demon skeletons who were coming down the cliff. Both monsters were familiar to Jessica but there were too many of them. She found that this Veronica had learned the spell of Boom and she wanted to use it but her companions were dispersed and it might have been involved in the explosion. Jessica decided to aim at the Hades condors one by one casting Frizzle even if it was tiresome. However those giant birds were very quick despite their sizes and it was not easy to get them. Moreover the demonriders reached close so all of the companions became occupied. She needed to be careful. She couldn't use her original power in Veronica's form but these men were also a team that wanted to save the world. They can't be defeated easily. Jessica shot one Hades condor down with Frizzle but another one dodged it quickly and the next moment piqued at her. She used the lightning staff to defend instinctively but the eerie bird held it with his enormous claws and lifted the small body of Veronica as easily as he had caught a hare.

"Hey, what do you think, you damn big sparrow! Will you put me down at once!?" She shook herself hanging from the wand but the bird that was much bigger than the natural condors could have easily fly even by carrying a grown-up man. Hanging like that, when Jessica looked down she saw Jade among two demonriders fighting hard. She managed to knock one down by a kick but when she tried to do the same to the other, there was a "very devil" took her leg.

"Jade! Use the Sexy Beam!" cried Jessica from above. Jade took the advice and used an attack that was a kind of aura made from sexual attractiveness, against the demonrider. It succeeded and the enemy fell down from his bone vehicle. At the same time, Jessica cast Frizzle directly to the Hades condor carrying her and defeated the very devil too by falling right on him.

" Huh, finally we did it somehow!" Said Jade and added. "That was a splendid idea when you recommended the Sexy Beam. It was like you could use it yourself!"

It sounded a little bit like the beautiful martial artist was boasting of her sex appeal, so Jessica answered instantly.

"Well, if I haven't been turned to a child, I would have as great figure as yours!"

"Hey, she's kidding, right?!" Asked Erik to Serena turning his had instantly but she was just smiling tenderly. Jessica came to her senses. She was in the body of a girl called Veronica though she didn't know how or why, neither the way to get her original body back. But the members of this party seemed to be good men and she didn't want to make them worry.

After they had defeated the enemies they found that the demonrider's demon skeleton was good to use as a vehicle for themselves too and Jessica rode on one of them with Serena.

"Are you okay, Veronica?" Asked Serena. She called herself Veronica's sister so she must have felt the situation strange.

"Of course okay, you silly girl! Can't you see the energy in me? March! Straight to the orb!"

While Jessica tried to behave natural somehow, the party reached to the deep end of the valley. As they came out from the rocks they saw the great eerie bird's nest over the plain. The elysium bird in question was there sitting on a big tree.

"Wow! It's just like..."

Jessica wanted to say "like Empyrea". In fact it was impressive as it looked huge even from hundreds of steps away. It was not as big as the Godbird, but bigger than the same elysium birds Jessica fought against in the area of Empycchu and looked stronger than them as well.

"If it notices us, we attack from anywhere!" said Eleven. they held their weapons at the ready and struck all at once. However, the enemy was quick. First they thought he soared before they could blink but the next moment piqued with a furious power thus they had to lie down instantly. Then he cast Sizzle from the air and howled raised a horrible howl that called Hades condors to help.

"This time I will..."

Jessica cast Boom high above with a magical power as much as she could force out from that little girl called Veronica. It scattered the Hades condors but but seemed far from enough for the giant elysium bird. He flew over the seven as his shadow covered all of them.

"Take that!" shouted Erik and tried to stab him with the assassin's dagger but the attack was repelled by the big massive beak thus he was shoved down and dropped his weapon. The knife rolled under Jessica's feet. She picked it up instinctively. In Veronica's form, she couldn't expect to succeed in using a Sudden Death which kills the enemy instantly by hitting its vital spot, but the assassin's dagger was knife having originally poison instilled. If she hits the foe well, the poison will pervade its body and makes the same effect of a Toxic Dagger. Jessica, in a little girl's figure moved the weapon as splendidly as a professional adult does and threw it against the eerie bird. It hit the critical point and as the poison started to take effect, the monster's moves got slower. Finally when Rab made it fall down by a dark sphere of Zam, the others attacked one by one and succeeded to defeat it simply.

"Veronica! It was fantastic!" said Eleven after the fight deeply impressed.

"Surely it was!" agreed Erik. "But since when do you know how to fight with knives?!"

Erik took his assassin's dagger back, and everyone was surprised or admiring, but only Serena looked seriously. After they got the Silver Orb, she let the others go forward, and said to Jessica when they were left alone.

"You...you are not Veronica, are you?!"

"So you say you woke up this morning after you saw that dream?"

After Jessica had told everything, her mother asked. Jessica just nodded. Eight was curious about something.

"You said the girl you transformed in your dream was called Veronica?"

Eight told that Jessica had attempted to call herself "the mighty magician Ver..." a day before.

"Really?!...Oh my God...it can't be..."

An idea flashed into Jessica's mind. An idea that was rather unbelievable but would have explained everything.

In fact, Eleven and his companions also realized after they had stayed a night in a tavern that Veronica had got her personality back and hadn't remembered anything about the previous day.

"What? What the heck are you talking about?! What have I done yesterday?!"

"Haha! First of all you'd better say your face in a mirror, kid!"

As usual she got irritated by Erik's teasing but did as he said and found some scribbling on her face saying "WHO ARE YOU?".

"It's not alright! In no way!"

Since looked like a child she looked cute even when she was distressed but she was actually very serious. She saw a dream seemed weirdly real but it felt even weirder after she had heard her companions' story about her previous behaviors. Especially that she had happened to say she would have had as nice figure as Jade's. Something came to her mind about it.

"What in Erdrea?! Yesterday I must've had my body switched with that girl, Jessica!"

4

From the next morning, Veronica became cautious. If it hadn't been a dream, then her soul must have had traveled in a completely different world. She was searching for the village called Alexandria in any map she could take. She didn't tell it to anybody except Serena. Her sister had found out the truth on the first day but both strongly had the sense of not wanting to make others worry. Moreover, to put more strain on Eleven who was on run from those who called him "the darkspawn" was the last thing they would have wanted. However, it was a serious matter that Veronica became like being haunted by someone. After they had left the "Eerie Eyrie" behind and reached the town of Phnom Nonh, they faced to a rush of numberless tourists had come to see a recently found mysterious mural among the ruins of Nhou Wat, an ancient kingdom said had been destroyed centuries before by its own chancellor called Lap Top who had turned to a brutal dictator. Veronica tried to find Jessica among them and when she found one passing before her on the stairs she instinctively asked for her name.

However, if you are traveling for saving the world, aside if it's good or bad, there are the most extraordinary things waiting and make you forget your former distress. In Phnom Nonh, there was a terrifying witch called herself "Dora-in-Grey". She had been transforming to a little girl who took advantage of people's goodwill and pulled them into the mural to make them be parts of her. It was like a ghost story that makes you have goose bumps even by just hearing it what Eleven and his companions had to experience in real. The mysterious mural led them to a space supposed to be its inside and was rather strange and weird. They just managed to break the witch's trick and save the tourists, and happened to find out that the ancient dictator Lap Top had been possessed by Mordegon, the evil lord that Rab and Jade had been hunting for the last sixteen years. Anyway, if a horrific story like the one with Dora-in-Grey could be true, it could also be natural that Veronica had a body swap with somebody she didn't know.

She settled on that conclusion until the weird thing happened again. After they defeated Dora-in-Grey and got the Magic Key, Rab remembered a mysterious door among the ruins of the capital of Zwaardsrust that might be opened with it. They moved to Zwaardsrust by the spell of Zoom and stayed for a night in the Warrior's Rest Inn, but on the next morning, Veronica woke up in Jessica's body again. In the same bedroom as the first time, wearing a pretty pink negligee that although looked a little like a maternity dress because of Jessica's big breasts that made the nightgown leave a wide space under them, in front of her stomach. Since it had no sleeves only lace frills on the shoulder, when she lifted her arms up, her breasts became visible from the chinks around the armpits. She put her arms down hastily and grabbed the breasts so big that looked just about to burst and massaged them like the last time.

"Well...why is that unfair disparity among women...?"

Jessica must have been about the same age of her original form. Veronica was a little bit jealous about her figure, but hearing about the previous time their bodies had been switched, she, who undoubtedly had been confused as much as Veronica herself, fought against the monsters determinedly. Veronica could feel the depth of love that Jessica's fiancé entertained for her as well as the respect and reliance that the boys called Bangerz and Mash or the people of the village had towards her.

"Yeah, this Jessica is a good girl indeed!"

At the same situation when Jessica woke up in Veronica's body for the second time, she realized they were a quite different part of that world called "Erdrea". It was a tavern in a country had been ruined by the monsters thirty years before and used to be called Zwaardsrust. The tavern was named Warrior's Rest Inn and was close to the ruins of the capital. Jessica first confused again when she saw everything bigger, but realized soon, and when Serena and Jade who'd slept in the same room had finished their preparations she sat in front of the mirror.

"It's like I became a child again..."

Veronica didn't especially looked like her, but Jessica felt her very cute in a figure of a little girl. "In this figure, everybody who doesn't know her would think I'm a kid so I can run around like when I was little!" thought her and started to tear about with opened arms, reviving the memories of her childhood.

"I said she's really a kid!" teased Erik as usual but Serena looked with a happy face and even Eleven and the other companions smiled about it. Jessica found that Veronica had been making the others smile in a different way from how the entertainer Sylvando had been doing. She felt happily about her too and thought of a plan that can make them communicate even if they can't meet each other. The plan was to write a diary on the they their bodies were switched, telling every detail about it. And also write down about their original world, explain the situations and note what they should be especially careful about. That would be essential for not only knowing each other and the world they live but also to be able to solve the problems smoothly like they were the real themselves. Veronica felt the same when she became Jessica for the second time and listed up the diary and the precautions to Jessica's notebook.

5

Jessica and Veronica kept on switching bodies about twice a week. Veronica told in her diary messages that Serena was a kind and reliable girl but also an airhead so she was needed to be watched to avoid accidentally doing something dangerous. She also told that the mission of the twins was to protect Eleven, the Luminary who was the hope of the whole world of Erdrea. Jessica noted that Eight was like the "Luminary" of their world who led the team to defeat the evil god, and that he had the right to marry Princess Medea - a wonderful girl looking like Serena with dark hair and as tenderhearted as her - but even then he chose Jessica herself which meant the greatest happiness to her, that she would never forget the gratitude for the princess and the feelings about her late brother.

When they switched their bodies after that for some times, there was nothing special happened. Veronica in Jessica's body stayed at home in Alexandria since Eight joined the local guards and had to protect the public peace from human crimes that began to increase as the decrease of monster attacks. During that time, Jessica was doing something could be called "training for homemaking" and when Veronica was in her body, she found that was a good chance for her too and did everything as Rosalind told. She also found some interesting books like "Tears Before Bedtime" or "The Champion's Code" that influenced her behaviors for a while, but she could explain the personality changes between her and the real Jessica with those books before her mother believing she managed to hide that she was not the real daughter. On the other hand, Jessica in Veronica's body was traveling with Sylvando's ship, the "Salty Stallion" from the area of Champs Sauvage to far north, towards the Crystal Kingdom of Sniflheim and she recognized that for a few times that she was on a sail taking at least two weeks. Naturally there were monsters attacking on the sea too. Sometimes a king squid tried to climb to the stem which reminded Jessica of that fight against Khalamari a little after she first met Eight. That memory still made her smile. Thanks to the real Veronica's diary she became frank with the other party members and could speak to them openly. The thief Erik was really behaving like an outlaw but towards Eleven he had a kind of devotion like Yangus had towards Eight. Jade was a grown-up woman resembling to Red a lot but also had the elegance of a princess and even a maiden's mind especially when she talked to Eleven. Usually she treated him as a lovely little brother but sometimes it seemed like she was falling in love with him. Rab was a kind of mischievous which was far from kinglike and jokingly expresses his honest sexual feelings so he was close to Trode. Sylvando was speaking and behaving like a woman but despite it was never known when he was joking and even in his performance-like behaviors proved a sensible and sympathetic man. Serena looked a little like Veronica's shadow, but also the one who supports her which looked very admirable and Jessica learned from Veronica's diary that she was determined to lead and support Serena as well. There was nothing like rivalry against each other between the two, Veronica and Serena were a good example of the twins who live for each other which was Jessica especially impressed by. So in Veronica's form she often hugged Serena that appeared like a little girl clinging to her big sister to outsiders. And about Eleven, the Luminary? Sometimes he seemed spacing out and looked a bit of a pushover, an innocent deceivable child, but that was also the first impression that Jessica had about Eight. Eleven looked like him in many ways, it was like when Eight still hadn't completely discovered his true latent powers.

After Eleven's party got off the ship, when next Jessica switched her body with Veronica again was the very day they arrived at a literally frozen city, the capital of the Crystal Kingdom of Sniflheim. The monsters around were almost as strong as in Orkutsk area, the region of her world also with heavy snowfalls. The capital's gates of Sniflheim were frozen and covered with a huge volume of hard ice which - despite there was no sign of a dark cloud of curse - reminded the enchanted capital of Trodain to Jessica.

"Leave it to me!" said Jessica and tried to melt the ice with her flaming magic spells like she had gotten rid of the thorns Trodain but soon realized that it would have been difficult even if she had been in her original body. Finally they found a non-frozen gate on the other side of the city's wall and managed to enter and talk to the only person not put into ice, the young Queen Frysabel. She asked them to find and defeat the magical beast that guarded the witch who froze the kingdom. They had to go to a forest on the eastern steppe but they spent a night after leaving the capital so Jessica turned to her original body. And at the next body switch, she found herself in a cabin in the middle of the great snowfield. She knew from Veronica's notes that they had succeeded to defeat the magical beast, but then, Krystalinda the witch appeared and tried to freeze Eleven to death when he was alone. His companions rushed there and managed to save him but his body was cooled down too much so he was in the bed unconscious at the time.

"He made his escape from being frozen but caught a bad cold! You must often change the pack on his forehead! If he wakes up, give him a hot tea with honey! He'd better to drink some strong liquor too before he sleeps!" read Jessica in the note by Veronica. Even in this kind of situation, she takes notes to prepare for the case they switch their bodies! Jessica felt Veronica's kindness more than ever. And also that how much she was determined to protect the Luminary. For Jessica, it would have been the last thing to make it fail so she nursed Eleven as determinedly as the real Veronica would have done. There was enough honey kept by the cabin's resident, a scholar of the royal court called Snorri who stored those kind of things for the very reason they were actually there. Flaming spells were familiar for Jessica at least as much as for Veronica and they were useful in that extreme coldness. It made her hesitated if it was proper to give the strong fruit brandy even if it had strong sterilizing power and brought a good sleep as well. But she's heard that Eleven had passed the trial of being adult by climbing the Tor of Cobblestone so there were no objections for giving him some alcohol. However, with Veronica's small body, even to reach the sleeping Eleven's head to change the pack was not easy, she needed to stand on tiptoe. It came to Jessica's mind how Veronica would do it when their bodies are not switched, and her heart got warm again. She thought about they were going to have children with Eight and she wondered they were going to be like that little Veronica. She came to her sense by the voice of the sleeping Eleven.

"The guy..." said he in his dreaming.

"What guy?" asked back Jessica instinctively.

"The guy who released the witch..." continued Eleven, though he was unconscious.

"Oh, I see! He's talking about that witch, Krystalinda!". Jessica knew from Veronica's notes that Eleven had gotten lost in the forest of Hekswood and defeated the beast Jörmun alone but soon after he had been caught by Krystalinda. "So he may know something even his companions don't!" By the way, when they had switched their bodies last time, in the capital of Sniflheim, Jessica felt strange that Queen Frysabel was the only one who had survived without any hurt while the others had been totally frozen. It was more than suspicious. Jessica wrote it down to the notes shared with Veronica before she went to sleep.

Thanks to that, Veronica found out easily that that Queen Frysabel in the frozen Sniflheim was Krystalinda herself and also noticed the wound on the witch's neck that was caused by her own spell. The party surrounded the witch and managed to defeat her, thus they brought the peace back to Sniflheim.

"Jessica's smart indeed!...And she also cared about Eleven wholeheartedly while I couldn't!"

This time, Veronica was the one whose heart was filled with tenderness thanks to Jessica.

6

"So you say you became that Veronica for several times in these days?!"

After some body switching, Jessica told the situation only to Eight at last. Eight felt many things passing in his mind. He learned that he must not treat her as a lover when there's not the real Jessica inside. But at the same time he became sure about that it would not only make their marriage impossible but even make their relationship absurd. And also there be some father extraordinary reason why that weird thing occurred that they have to find out. However, If they asked a priest, it would be treated as a curse and they would attempt an exorcism that creates a cause of a rumor that Jessica is haunted by some evil spirit. That would not only be disgrace the honor of the Albert Counts but also be heartless against Veronica whose clear existence - even in a different world - was already believed firmly by Jessica.

The next time the switched their bodies was about a week later, after Eleven and his companions had brought all the orbs to Arboria, the holy place and the hometown of Veronica and Serena as well. Jessica woke up in Veronica's body on the morning the party left the Holy Shrine and walked through the Arborian Highlands in order to reach the mysterious altar in the First Forest which leads them to the Tree of Life. Although Arboria was not too far away from the snowy Snærfelt steppe, and was on a highland as well, somehow it was as warm as the trees were thick with leaves. It was a miracle how that kind of place was rich in nature but it must have been because it was close to the Yggdrasil, the source of life from where immeasurable vitality was emanating. It seemed that the vitality grew the monsters big and strong as well. Especially a long built flying dragon called "ethereal serpent" had the power as the beasts appeared in Empycchu and if there had been plural of them, Eleven's party would have had a desperate battle. Fortunately that dragon's incidence rate was low and they say only one during the day. But even then, despite the fact that they were "in front of the gate" after a long trip, the remaining way to Yggdrasil was still long. Even the path before the First Forest took so long that they couldn't make it in a day so they had to spend a night under the sky.

"Hey, why's that the worshipped subject is so far from its holy place?!" complained Jessica in Veronica's body. Eleven was investigating the map he had received from Benedictus, the High Priest of Arboria.

"Well, it seems we can surely make it to enter the First Forest tomorrow, and after that, I guess we have to spend two more night to reach the altar".

He seemed his heart was full as well. If he reaches the Tree of Life, he will probably get not only the Sword of Light but also the sign of the true Luminary which must awaken all of his hidden powers. He will surely be strong enough to fight against the demon lord called Mordegon who is said to have destroyed many kingdoms.

Serena was just looking up to the sky.

"The stars are so beautiful, Veronica, aren't they?"

"What?...Oh, yeah..."

The starry sky looked just like in Jessica's world and the white mist in the middle was the same as well. Some called it the "Milky Way", other called it a river, but Jessica remembered that she had heard it to be called as the "Tree of Life". The mist on the sky points to the center of the bound system of numberless stars including theirs, and it is the source of life. The center which figuratively expressed as the top of the Tree of Life is the direction of Sagittarius, and the opposite side is Gemini. That line is called the "Axis of Life". So Jessica realized that she came to a world where that axis is existing in a form of a real tree.

"So then, Gemini must be..."

Jessica finally found it out. If the Yggdrasil with the power to create is the "Axis of Life" that connects Sagittarius with Gemini, the latter must be the twins who lead them to its top, so none else but Veronica and Serena!

"So, you are Miss Veronica I presume!" said Eight.

When Veronica woke up in Jessica's body again, was recognized soon so she nodded without a word. Eight who had been thinking about that body switch all night, finally came out with an idea.

"There might be one who can find the reason".

"Really?"

If it's embarrassing or even dangerous to take her to the church, it might be wise to try a fortune-teller. Eight's idea was to show Jessica with Veronica's soul to Kalderasha, the best fortune-teller he knew.

"I should have realized this earlier!" said Eight and used the spell of Zoom for moving to the town of Farebury in order to save time. As they walked to Kalderasha's house, Eight didn't behave like a lover this time, knowing it was not the real Jessica he was with. Veronica could feel that solicitude and revised her first plan which was to behave exactly like Jessica, including teasing her partner a little, but then she felt it would have been impolite against the real Jessica.

Inside of Kalderasha's home, it was rather like a typical fortune-teller's space, its strong mystical aura moved even Veronica who had been raised in a place much to do with gods. The master immediately began to meditate, seeing Jessica's face in front of the crystal ball.

"Your soul...it is wandering somewhere far away, isn't it?"

Kalderasha was a skilled fortune-teller indeed, he sensed the truth soon.

"It is in some other world right?"

"Yes! Exactly! Do you know something about it?!" screamed Veronica during the ceremony. But Kalderasha shook his head.

"Unfortunately not. Even someone like me cannot see what is happening in another world".

"Then...couldn't you tell something about the reason on this?" asked Eight, But the expression of the fortune-teller's face remained difficult.

"I don't know!...If there is something I can say..." said he slowly, being lost in his thoughts.

"The so-called "parallel worlds" could be something told as fictions in our world. What you think is a fairy tale, could be real in a different world, where OUR WORLD might be believed as a fiction!"

Kalderasha didn't tell more, so the two left his home.

"Oh yes! I got it!" shouted Veronica when they reached out of Farebury.

"If my Erdrea is told as a fiction in this world, there must be some book about it!"

"Yeah...it's possible..." said Eight.

"Oh! I should've looked for about it in that huge tower of books!" grumbled Veronica by knocking her own - or rather should say Jessica's - head, referring to the Royal Library of Sniflheim. Eight gradually got the point she wanted to tell.

On the next morning, when the real Jessica came back to her body, Eight asked her about a tale of Erdrea.

"Oh, I see! Even a world we think as a fiction, it might not be merely the author's imagination, but a consequence of that some people from another world warned him about their existence involuntarily, so he just thought he had created them, in fact there are REAL in a different world!"

Jessica began to discover the library of the Alberts' castle of Alexandria with Eight. It had a lot of books from all over the world, including hundreds of legends and fairy tales so they could expect to find a book of a world called Erdrea. Even when they found no clue on the title, they read all the books might have been connected with it. Finally it took a whole day, but they had found nothing. There was still late at night and they had to burn candles, but both remembered that they had had to discover a much bigger library at Trodain's castle.

"Hold it, my dear! If we can't find it up there, we should ask for King Trode for the Royal Library!"

They needed a ladder at the end. Jessica looked the books of the top shelf from a height that would have made an obscene man try to look under her skirts.

"Yes! I've found it!"

On the 11th shelf from the ground, a place which was not visible unless someone climbs, there was a big, thick, codex-like book entitled "The Luminary of Erdrea". It seemed it was treated like a fiction indeed, but it was definitely the story of Eleven and his companions, telling their journey in a form of an illuminated chronicle, with lot of colorful illustrations. Jessica was very happy.

"Finally we've got it! I can't wait until I can tell it to Veronica when we switch our bodies again!"

7

But the body switch between Jessica and Veronica never came again. Jessica was reading the book bit by bit when she was alone with Eight, appreciating all of its words. They read about Eleven's first adventure when he left the village of Cobblestone on his sixteenth birthday in order to meet the King of Heliodor, about that he was imprisoned instead of being welcome as the Luminary, how he met Erik in the prison and escaped, and after, while the two generals of Heliodor, Hendrik and Jasper were after them, they went through the "Door of Departure" and how Veronica and Serena joined their party on the Hotto Steppe.

"Yes, it's her!" pointed Jessica at a little girl wearing a cute red hat and drawn exactly the same as the one she had switched her body with.

"What? She's a kid?!" asked Eight surprisingly. Veronica's behaviors as he had seen in Jessica's body was considered to be a girl of Jessica's age.

"She's not really a kid! Look, read this!"

"Oh, I see!" said Eight when it became clear to him too that Veronica had been drained her age with her magical power when she had been kidnapped the monsters.

Later, they read until the party reached Gallopolis, a kingdom in a desert.

"Hee hee! This Prince Faris seems much more excusable than that prince!" laughed Jessica referring to Prince Charmles.

Prince Faris of Gallopolis who had been deceiving his people and taking all the credit finally faced his own faults and confessed everything, but what he had done to Eleven and his party at the beginning was undeniably close to the behaviors of the Argonian prince. But that time, Eight was thinking about something else. If the story of their world were existing in Erdrea as a fiction like this, It might tell the facts in a wrong way, could even set Prince Charmles as a stepping-stone and tell that Eight took the right of the marriage with Medea from him, making Charmles the ultimate villain and Medea the heroine who finally marries with the hero. That was coming to Eight's mind at the time. What Charmles had done to the princess during his trial was unforgivable, even with the fact that he couldn't have known that the horse he had tortured was Medea herself, and it is true Eight had felt a strong will to protect the princess from him. But the feeling of "want to protect" is not necessarily equal to the feeling of love and Eight hand not felt something like that for Medea. During his journey to defeat Rapthorne, something that aroused Eight's love rivalry was Angelo's approaches to Jessica. That was one reason made Eight to realize in early time that he had fallen in love with Jessica. And also, in the case of Faris, he was a man who could have been called handsome objectively, and there might have been some people who sympathize with him for that reason, but if Charmles, who couldn't have been called handsome even just as flattery, had revealed his true feelings there might have been no one to sympathize with him. On contrary, Angelo was a man with especially good looking, so during a trip, an outsider could have seen him and Jessica as a beautiful couple, and it was a disgrace for Eight the most since he had been in pain of love towards Jessica. Deep inside his heart, he had always been worrying about it before he could tell his true feelings for the one he always loved.

According to the story of Erdrea, the Luminary's party had a new companion, Sylvando the jester, and left Gallopolis to the port city of Gondolia. After some complications when the party was surrounded by the strategist general Jasper and his army, somehow they managed to shake them off and sail out to the ocean on Sylvando's own ship, the Salty Stallion. While Jessica had switched her body with Veronica, she had heard the same things from the party members so she found that the book was telling the facts about the world she had mysteriously been in for several times. It was written about the Masked Martial Arts tournament in Octagonia and how Jade and Rab joined the party at the ruins of Dundrasil were also just the same as Jessica had heard. What was new to her was the fact that Irwin, Eleven's father had originally been the head guard of the royal family of Dundrasil and had fallen in love with Princess Eleanor thus he had become the king. It was rather similar to the situation of Eight and Princess Medea especially because Eleanor on the picture was a beauty looking like Medea in many ways. Eight guess what was in Jessica's mind and said with a gentle smile.

"Oh, no, it's quite different! In their case there's nothing about somebody used as a "stepping stone" like Prince Charmles, and above all, they're obviously saying that Irwin was not from any royal family. So it's not like my case in which they suddenly said me such an unbelievable thing that I was a descendant of some royalty which would have had satisfied the higher-ups about marrying Princess Medea. Head guard Irwin and Princess Eleanor just simply fell in love with each other like you and I!"

Eight held Jessica by her shoulder, seeing her serious eyes. In his mind, there was something different. He was thinking about that if Eleven had been raised up as the prince of Dundrasil, he really could have been the fiancé of Jade, the princess of Heliodor which had been in friendly relations with his country. Eight was afraid Jessica might associate THAT with the relationship between Medea and himself. When the truth was turned out about Eight's birth, King Clavius even said if Eltrio had not run after Xia, Eight had been born as the crown prince of Argonia and would have been Medea's fiancé as well. But those were nothing but far-fetched ideas, since if Eight's father had not run after the one who was going to be Eight's mother, Eight wouldn't even been born. Eight said with those things in his mind.

"If I had really loved Princess Medea and saw the behavior's of Prince Charmles and the Princess worrying about marrying him, I would have asked her to elope, even if I hadn't known that I was a royal descendant, not caring about the stupid promise that made between those kingdoms!"

Jessica once surprised at those words but the she smiled gently too. First she couldn't believe that Eight, who was supposed to be too shy to express his feelings of love, would say such a bold thing, but in fact, he had been bold enough to tell his true feelings to Jessica even in that situation they had been just after defeating Rapthorne. Being a hero, he was brave enough for that as well.

When they read the sequel of the book, they learned about the tragic love between Kai, the fisherman of Lonalulu and Michelle, the beautiful mermaid. Jessica had not heard much about it when she had been in Veronica's body. Humans and mermaids, their life spans are widely different. The "Kai" whom Michelle fell in love with had gotten old and finally died while his lover was still waiting for him, Eleven's party could meet only his grandson, Kainui. The book didn't tell clearly what had happened to Michelle after. It said there was a theory about she finally had met her lover's grandson after she had learnt the sad truth and then she had "perished in the brine", but another one told that she might had been waiting for Kai forever without knowing anything. Jessica didn't know which theory was true but she decided to ask it to Veronica's companions if there were a next chance to switch bodies.

"I would tell the truth to Michelle, though I know it brings so much pain! Because...it's even sadder when I have to deceive someone. Anything would be better than believing in a lie!" said Jessica. It was coming from her straightforward views.

Even a week from Eight and Jessica started to read the myth of the Luminary of Erdrea, there was no sign of body switching between Jessica and Veronica. They had already read about the adventure in Eerie Eyrie when Jessica became Veronica for the first time and she learned what had happened there when her mind had actually not been traveling in Erdera. The case with Dora-in -Grey in Phnom Nonh seemed truly horrifying and a chill came over even an unyielding girl like Jessica when she thought about going through it in real.

"Oh, so this is that "huge tower of books" she was talking about!" said Eight on another day. Last time when the girls had switched their bodies, Veronica must had mentioned that Royal Library of Sniflheim when she had talked about the book of this world she'd wanted to find.

Finally they reached the part where the last body switch had happened, the Arborian Highlands. Even Jessica had no idea what was going to happen beyond that, after Eleven's party entered to the First Forest. The book told that the Luminary and his companions had walked through the mysterious forest and spent the night there twice. It told the details of the second night, just before Yggdrasil's Altar they had to set the orbs.

"Veronica, our leaves bloomed at the same time, so they'll fall at the same time, won't they?"

That was what Serena asked to her sister before they fell asleep. And, according to the book, Veronica answered "I don't know, you've always been a bit slow, to be honest" .

"It's already late tonight, why don't we read the next part tomorrow?" asked Eight who had come home after a long duty of guard. Jessica was rather curious about the sequel of the story but she was worrying about her future husband more and wanted him to rest enough after work, so she did as he'd told.

"Tomorrow I'll have a day off, so we can read it all day" said Eight.

"Yes! Good night, hubby!" said Jessica with a little mischief but full of love.

8

"Good morning, Jessica! It seems I've overslept a little but let's read the...what happened?!"

After a deep and long sleep, Eight went to Jessica's room and found his beloved already awaken and with a completely pale face, stunning at the book on the desk.

"What in the world happened?!"

Eight first thought if the body switch after being stopped for a long time had happened again, but as he looked into Jessica's eyes, he found she was the real one. Eight's glance moved to the opened book of "The Luminary of Erdrea".

"Is there something wrong in it?"

When Eight said so, Jessica came to her mind and hastily turned the pages back until they had read it together last night.

"Read it...!"

Eight started to read the sequel of the story quickly.

"Oh my...!"

Eight was shocked too when he read what had happened to Eleven's party after they had reached the Tree of Life. When it seemed like everything was going to be fine, there came an unparalleled disaster on the whole Erdrea. At the very moment Eleven wanted to handle the Sword of Light that had been belonged to the ancient hero, Jasper who had followed them without being noticed, attacked the party with an enormous power of darkness given by the Lord of Shadows. And the Luminary's party, which was still immature to fight against an enemy like that was powerless before it. Then, the King of Heliodor who had been calling eleven "the Darkspawn" appeared. That time it was almost clear that he had been possessed by the Dark Lord Mordegon. He had followed Jasper and dove away Hendrik who had finally grasped the situation and took the power of the Luminary from Eleven in order to use it to go inside the heart of Yggdrasil. He turned the mighty Sword of Light to the Sword of Shadows and absorbed the ultimate energy of the World Tree with it, withering the whole Tree of Life.

"...My Goodness!"

Eight's face turned grave reading such a helpless situation but Jessica urged him to read it beyond. The myth told that after Yggdrasil had fallen, Eleven had been turned into a fish for a while by Marina, the queen of the sea and when he had returned to the land as a human, he had reconciled with Hendrik and began to look for his companions spread all over the world.

"Oh, it's saying there's still some hope isn't it?"

"Yes, but..."

Eight started to read as quickly as he glanced at every line just for a moment and learned that Eleven had won the power of the Luminary back and reunited with most of his companions until he had reached Arboria again. But then, he got why Jessica had shocked so seriously. When Eleven's party arrived at Arboria, Veronica had already been dead. When the Tree of Life had fallen, she had sacrificed her own life for saving the others, putting one by one inside of a holy barrier, and had not had enough power remained to save herself as well.

"The reason why there was no more body switch is that she's dead..." said Jessica powerlessly. Eight read the sequel of the story by skipping several pages, concentrating on the end.

"I've read the end too" said Jessica. "The Lord of Shadows's defeated and the peace comes back to Erdrea, but it doesn't change that Veronica's no more..."

Eight had not seen Jessica so sad since her brother's death. She had woken up this morning early because had been curious of the story and started to read but after she learned the shocking scene at the top of Yggdrasil, she couldn't put it down until she reached the chapter when Veronica's death had turned out. For Jessica, Veronica was the one whom she had switched her body with, thus she was feeling some destiny about their relation and was dying to meet her personally. And at the same time, as a one who had lost her sibling she was deeply sympathizing with Serena who had faced with her dear sister's death. She felt the pain of Serena from head to toe. "How wonderful twins...!" cried she shedding tears. Thinking about that, she noticed Eight's hand was on her shoulder.

"Jessica, don't you think that you'd been switched your body with Veronica because someone was calling for help from that world?" said he. Jessica turned to him with wide eyes.

"So you say, even after the peace returned to Erdrea, someone who doesn't want Veronica to be dead is giving some messages to us?"

"It could be so. Even if that one is doing it involuntarily, it's trying to change the fate!"

Thinking deeply about it, it was not an impossible idea. Eight and Jessica had experienced a lot of mysterious and miraculous situations. Even the God Bird Empyrea had said she had come from another world and had left to a different one as well.

"Only if Empyrea were still here, we might be able to go even to Erdrea!" said Jessica. In fact, if there had been someone to be able to bring them to another world was Empyrea. To begin with that old sword which Eight had found in the forest near Farebury when their trip had just begun, and which had much higher cutting quality than a brand new copper sword despite its age. When Empyrea had seen it she had told that it had been familiar to her and when they had put it into the Alchemy Pot by following her advice, it had turned out to be the legendary "Erdrick's Sword", the ultimate weapon. And the weapon which was illustrated in the book about Erdrea, the legendary "Sword of Light" looked almost identical to it as well as its name and "Erdrea" sounded so similarly that it cut out any possibility of coincidence. There might had been some connections between Erdrea and Empyrea.

"Wait, I think we still have a feather of Empyrea!" said Eight. When the God Bird had flown away from Trodain, she had dropped one of her feathers. First it had been exhibited in the royal palace, but when Eight had left the castle, Trode had gave it to him saying that it was in a safer place in the hands of the heroes who had saved the world and it, so it had been moved to Alexandria. The feather shining in blue and purple colors was longer than a height of a man, and looked like a giant palm tree leaf. Eight brought it to the room. It was so big that they decided to try it in the library. When they put it close to the book about Erdrea, it started to shine a little bit stronger, attracting to a particular page of the book which began to shine as well. it was a page at the very last, after the story ended, close to the back cover. When they turned it, there was a cute creature drawn, pure white all over its body like a snowman, only its eyes and nose were black.

"What could this be...?"

When they turned the pages back, they found some similar small creatures illustrated. Could they be some fairies having the key to move to a parallel world? They turned to the last page again and shook the feather of Empyrea, but the reaction didn't get stronger.

"It's a hard nut! What should we do next?" complained Jessica, elbowing on the table and holding her head.

"Well, if there was one clue in this book, there could be one in another! Why don't we find it out?" said Eight.

"Yes" answered Jessica. "I'll read this again from the beginning, and you will try to find some books titled like "Transits to Other Worlds", or something!"

Thus they confined themselves to the library again for all day. Jessica was concentrating on every line and word of the story and Eight was searching all the bookshelves for the second time. But there was no hit even in the late afternoon. There was getting dark outside and when the gong informed them of the coming dinner they decided to have a break in searching and stood up in order to go out. But at the same time, the moonlight shined into the room through the window. And with that, Empyrea's feather and the page in question started to shine brightly as well. "Oh, that's it!" said the two at the same time like who found the answer. That window of the library shaped the same as the one they had seen at the Wisher's Peak and also in the library of Trodain. Yes, it was possible that Ishmahri, the inhabitant of the Moon knew something about it. The shadow of the window became clearly visible.

"Do you think our wish come true again?"

The window's shadow from the moonlight made only one wish come true in one man's or a group of men's life. It was a rather extraordinary case that some people could see it even for twice, but it seemed there was a third time for Eight and Jessica. Not being teleported to the field of the Moon this time, but they saw some words appearing on the glass of the window.

" DERARE", " NASBLEE", " REGENTIN", " REYGEN", " YEAR'SMEP" those five words were readable from it. They seemed rather meaningless but they noted them. After a while, the words disappeared from the window and the feather and the book lost their lights.

"What could these mean?" wondered Jessica. It was supposed to be some secret code so they tried to solve it. Words like "year" or "regent" had some meanings but there was no clue how to connect them. However the first word seemed like the anagram of "Erdrea" so they tried to read all the words by changing the order of the letters. But first of all, they had to go for dinner. Rosalind was quite strict about those kind of things and Eight didn't want to give a bad impression as Jessica's fiancé.

But on the next morning, Jessica rushed into Eight's room and informed him about the answer like she had found out in her dreams.

"Isn't it 'Empyrea's energy enables entering Erdrea'?!".

"Well, yes, in that case, it would have some meaning" nodded Eight. It was a fine alliterating sentence and also explained the energy that was in the feather of the holy bird that can travel through parallel words.

"But then, what should we do with it? Wait until the window's shadow appears again and cast it like a spell?" asked Jessica. Eight sank into thought.

"Yeah...perhaps. But, Jessica, think about it! If we do like you just said, we may be absorbed into that book!"

"Oh, yes! It's possible".

The two had experienced more than enough miraculous situations. From that window's shadow they had moved to the Moon, and when they had followed Empyrea's shadow in Empycchu, they had found themselves in a world everything in black. It had been even miracles that they had been able to come back from those places. This time, they had to be determined for going inside a book as much as they had been determined for those times.

"I...I want to save Veronica!" claimed Jessica strongly.

"Yes, I thought you'd say so!" assented Eight and hugged Jessica tenderly. There wouldn't have come any other answer from that girl with so much kindness and so strong sense of justice. That was the main reason why he had fallen in love with her. And also they were a couple had met in a journey of saving the world and raised their love for each other until they had made it. If there is another world exposed to a danger like theirs, why shouldn't they go to save that too! They began to prepare for a new journey. Naturally they were going to take Erdrick's Sword which resembled to the Sword of Light. As well as Alistair's armor. Not just for the reason that it was a symbol of treading Jessica's brother's footsteps as the guard of Alexandria but also because it had been described by Empyrea as a possible armor of Erdrick which had been changed its shape when it had gone through the gates of parallel worlds. They prepared some other powerful equipment and the feather of Empyrea that they were going to definitely need when they come back. Then, they waited for the next night. Rosalind didn't say anything. Once her daughter had run away from home and finally saved the world, bringing her future husband as well. She had accepted that it was Jessica's way of living. She had just promised to not say another word about her choices in life.

On the next evening, the shadow of the window appeared just like the same and the page in the book and the feather of Empyrea shined as they were harmonizing as well. It could be the wish not of theirs but of the creature's in the book that Ishmahri had accepted. Eight and Jessica cast together:

"EMPYREA'S ENERGY ENABLES ENTERING ERDREA!"

Then, a great whirling light was spread out from the shining book. That had to be the gate to the other world. Eight and Jessica jumped into it without hesitation. There was a miraculous space beyond. They were floating without knowing which was up and down.

"Eight, you're shining!" shouted Jessica. This time, it was Alistair's armor that was covered with strong light and they noticed that it was changing its shape. Finally it had turned into a tunic.

"What happened to Alistair's armor?!" cried out Jessica.

"The feather of Empyrea you have looks something's happened as well!" said Eight. The God Bird's feather which had kept shining all that time was not a feather anymore, but something very long like a rope, and finally became a whip! There was something like a winged goddess on the handle and they could feel an immeasurable power from it, but its end was like pointing towards somewhere they couldn't see in the mist all around as like it was leading them where they had to go. Like a yarn, connecting people, or connecting different time zones. A yarn is something that's sometimes getting twisted, twining around, coming back and being torn but getting joined again, like flowing of time itself. "Is that possible that this is a yarn connecting different worlds?" asked Jessica to herself. Veronica was a sorceress could use whips as well just like her. That whip she actually held in her hands could have been the yarn that connected the two.

As she was thinking something like that, she noticed a light at the end of the mist. And suddenly, she and Eight found themselves falling into the basin of a waterfall flowing down from a cliff...

~Part 2~

1

"Tomorrow will be our final battle!"

"Yes, we must win in that fight and bring peace back to Erdrea!"

There were two in the desert looking up at the night sky. A young man with dark spiked hair wearing a blue tunic with the mark of the Luminary, and a rarely beautiful girl with long ponytailed purple hair and extremely attractive bodylines. The latter showed some worry on her face.

"Are you afraid, Serenica?"

"Oh, no, it's not that!" answered the girl called Serenica and changed to a smile immediately. "I have promised to protect you!"

By hearing those words the young man smiled too and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, what a shame! Being protected by a girl!"

"Hey, what are you saying after such a long time?!" laughed Serenica and took his arm. The boy leaned towards her.

"We protect each other don't we?" said he. The girl closed her eyes and smiled again.

"Oh, Erdwin! After this fight ends..."

"Yes, I know!"

Then, the lips of the two got quite close together.

When Eight and Jessica woke up they found themselves in a room like of a church. They were in bed. the sunshine came from the window as in a fine morning.

"Where are we...?" asked Jessica who couldn't believe her eyes and looked around the room. Eight opened his eyes almost at the same time.

"Was it a dream?"

"What dream?"

"About lovers before they challenge to a demon lord or something..."

"So you saw that dream too?!"

Jessica remembered that the name of the girl in the dream was Serenica. It was the name of the legendary sage and the ancestor of Veronica and Serena and Jessica had heard during the body switches and read in the myth book that she had been in love with Erdwin, the ancient Luminary. It was told by the people of Erdrea that in ancient times, Erdwin and Serenica had fought against the Dark One at the end of a long and harsh trip and had fallen in love with each other. That was rather similar to the situation of Eight and herself, thought Jessica.

"Are you fully recovered, my children?"

As they were talking and thinking, they didn't notice the old nun coming in. That was a scene somehow familiar to them. Eight was the first who opened his mouth.

"Is this the church at Heliodorian Foothills?"

"Yes, it is" answered the nun. The old woman was wondering about the young couple who seemed to be very happy when they had known where they actually were. But it was the best information of the two. They found that they had reached the world they wanted to go. It was the church where Eleven and Erik had spent a night after they had just escaped from the jail of Heliodor. Just the same as it had been written in the book. And since there was nothing ruined there, they realized that Yggdrasil had not fallen yet. The question was what was the correct actual date. Jessica asked to the nun.

"We've heard that there were some dangerous criminals have escaped from the capital. When was exactly that?"

"Oh that! That's an ancient history, it was months ago!"

Eight and Jessica looked worried when they heard that, so the nun added.

"I am sure that they had been caught by now, or even if not, they must not be around here!"

It was natural that she had misunderstood the cause of their worry, but it meant that Eleven and his companions had already been far away and probably close to the World Tree. Even if the world seemed fine, it was only the matter of time that the tragedy begins. They had to hurry. Eight and Jessica expressed their gratitude to the old nun, packed their baggage and left the church. Fortunately, they had everything brought with them, and Eight also had Munchie in his pocket as always.

"What's the shortest way to reach..." considered Jessica, when they saw a big group of soldiers running and panicking far away.

"Look, Jessica, something's wrong there!" said Eight and gripped the hilt of his sword instinctively. As they ran over the hill the soldiers were, they felt something like an earthquake getting gradually stronger. One soldier noticed the two came over them and alarmed.

"Run away from here!" shouted he.

"What happened!?" asked Eight.

" A monster! An enormous black dragon appeared!" pointed the soldier to the way leading to the waterfall. There was a giant dragon with pitch black scales, still far away but already clearly visible, being more than ten times as tall as a human. It approached slowly.

"Eight, isn't that..."

Eight nodded to Jessica's words. If the myth they had read was true, it was obviously the same black dragon that Eleven and Erik had run away from.

"But how could it come out?"

"What?" asked the soldier who didn't know what Jessica meant, but another soldier who was supposed to be an officer answered.

"Right, it's been inhabited under the cave of the Heliodorian sewers, for a long time, though I don't know how. But it was useful against fugitives so His Majesty decided to leave it there. Sir Hendrik and Sir Jasper together were able to take it and also tame it a little. It couldn't come out so we thought it was okay, but last night the cliff over the waterfall that's close to the cave was struck by an extremely strong lightning or something that made the area shake! I guess some blocked holes in the cave opened as its consequences, ant it managed to come out!"

So it was because of the shock that the opening gate between dimensions had caused when Eight and Jessica had arrived at this world. And then, that giant beast had come out until the waterfall, and although it was too high even for his size, he had wings on his back. Not big enough to fly with that body but good to help decrease speed during jumping down, thus he had been able to come here. So in fact, Eight and Jessica were somehow unwillingly responsible for it.

"We can help!" said Eight and took his sword, but the soldier stopped him soon.

"Idiot!" shouted he. "Do you really think you can handle it fighting head-to head?! If there were Sir Hendrik or Sir Jasper here, even that could be possible, but both of them are out of the capital, and His Majesty the king as well!"

So they learned that the king possessed by Mordegon had already left the castle with Hendrik towards Yggdrasil.

"Anyway, we're going to lure this monster into the downtown! There we can drop some rocks over its head and may defeat it!" said the soldier.

"But then, what's gonna happen to the people of the downtown?!" asked Jessica furiously.

"A little sacrifice cannot be avoided!" replied the officer. "It's only a slum that used to be the moat but some rouges and ruffians inhabited there without permission. It's no loss in return for protecting the real citizens of Heliodor!"

"...What did you say?!"

That heartless plan of solution insulted Jessica's sense of justice much. She rage as much as she wanted to burn that soldier with some flaming spells but calmed down as she felt Eight was holding her hand. She said with a smile.

"No, we must not let that!"

"Hey, you!"

Eight and Jessica jumped over the military unit with superhuman jumps, not letting the officer say a word, and ran towards the black dragon. The black dragon was an especially powerful monster, its size was equal to a gigantes as well as its strength. In comparison to that, a lowest ranked Heliodorian soldier was merely able to defeat a platypunk one-to-one when he was armed, after a hard fight. So it was natural that the soldiers couldn't make a wise decision when they had seen a black dragon coming. But of course, Eight and Jessica could never support such a discriminative idea that sacrificing the lives of people from the slum. They had defeated the evil god Rapthorne, so it seemed not too hard to fight against that monster, even if it was bigger than the trees around and could stomp over them.

As the black dragon noticed the two, he lifted a horrible shout. But the two heroes were accustomed to those roars so Jessica cast Kafrizz immediately. The terrific flaming magical sphere finely hit the giant target and made it recede.

"I feel nice when I can use my full power in this world!" said Jessica, referring to that when she had been in Veronica's body she had not been able to use all of her magical power since the Arborian girl's had not been fully bloomed yet. However, even using the real Jessica's spells, the enemy was a beast huge like a tower. One Kafrizz couldn't even make him fall down, he took the balance with his tail, and then swung it in order to sweep the two away. They jumped over that terrible tail and the Eight cut him with a powerful Dragon Slash. The dragon screamed again from the severe pain. But the next, it was Jessica's Twin Dragon Lash which caused him another pain. That Goddess Whip that Empyrea's feather had turned to seemed even stronger than the Gringham whip. The black dragon had already lost himself and was storming so the two moved away for a moment.

"It's as tough as it's big!" noticed Jessica. The dragon finally belched out blistering flames. But that action had already been seen through as it had taken a deep breath, moving his head back. Jessica charged her magical power and repelled that burning breath with the spell of Kacrackle. Slashed by numberless tremendous edges of ice, the black dragon expired at last.

"Holy cow! Who are you, defeating such an enormous beast?!" wondered the Heliodorian soldiers rushing to them seeing the dragon was killed. Eight and Jessica were already thinking about the next thing. Eight asked to the soldiers.

"When did His Majesty leave the capital with Sir Hendrik?"

"Well, that was just yesterday! The general left once with some especially skilled members to Sniflheim, but as soon as he came back, he left again as the king's guard".

"Yeah, we were rather surprised. Sir Jasper's been staying away for a long time too! I guess His Majesty left to prepare for the final battle against the Darkspawn!"

The two got the information they wanted. Then, even the dark lord can't use his superpower if he had left as a king with his guards ostensibly so they had a little time before Mordegon reaches Yggdrasil.

"But we didn't have much time anyway!" said Jessica as they walked back down the Heliodorian Foothills.

"Yeah, we need some good idea!" replied Eight.

"Well, well, dear Luminary...It seems you are in quite the pickle..." said someone suddenly behind them. But they saw no one when they turned around. There was no other human at the area, they looked for the voice with troubled expressions on their faces. But then, Munchie jumped out Eight's pocket and climbed on the rock nearby. There was another mouse looking at them.

"So finally you've found me!" said it.

"What?! A talking mouse?!" shouted both surprisingly.

"Oh, you're seeing me as a mouse, because it was a mouse who found me!"

It was very mysterious that the mouse was talking about, but also it was familiar from the myth they had read about the Luminary of Erdrea.

"Well, I am not an ordinary mouse either!" shouted Munchie like who wanted to compete, and turned himself to his real form, Chen Mui, Eight's grandfather.

"I knew that from the beginning!" said the other mouse, and as it hit its head, it changed into a woman like a fortune-teller with deep blue hair.

"You...!"

Jessica recognized her quickly. It was the woman she had seen in the book, at the story of Eleven's dream who had seen when he had been saved from drowning.

"I guess you have some idea about who I am" said the woman. "I am...the one you people call the Seer".

"The Seer?" repeated Eight. "So you are the one who led Erik the thief to help the Luminary..." said Eight who had remembered too.

"Well, I think that's one thing had happened..." replied the Seer. "But it doesn't matter now. Something I am more curious about is that you are not belong to this world, are you?"

Eight and Jessica nodded. The Seer continued. "Last night, I felt from far away that the gate between dimensions had opened and came here. I didn't think I would find some from another world, though. Wait a minute!"

The mysterious woman touched the foreheads of both Eight and Jessica.

"I see! You want to go reach Yggdrasil as quickly as you can!"

The two were surprised very much. She had read from their minds by touching them.

"I cannot do too much, but I think this will be useful to you" said she and gave them a scrolled piece of paper.

"It's the map of Erdrea!"

It was a big piece of paper that could totally cover a little table. The whole world map was on here but they could see the details as well.

"But even with a map, we..." begun Jessica talking to the Seer, but she was not there anymore.

"Don't worry, I think the Seer gave us a clue at least!" said Chen Mui, and, like he really had some intention to compete with the Seer, turned himself back to Munchie and went back to Eight's pocket without saying anything more. Eight and Jessica looked at the map.

"Wait! This Angri-La would be..."

The place Jessica pointed was on the west from Heliodor, was a holy field of discipline among the high mountains. Going through the forest called the Manglegrove, they would reach a point was relatively close to Yggdrasil by air, having Angri-La between. It was supposed to be a rather hard trip, going over especially high mountains, But Angri-La had a same status as a sanctuary with Arboria and had the ultimate field of discipline as well, so there might be a clue to fly directly to Yggdrasil.

"...But even then, I don't think we would make it in time on foot" worried Eight.

"Oh, I've brought these with us!" said Jessica and held up a bell.

"I don't think Baumren's bell would work in this world!" doubted Eight. Jessica gave a tsk-tsk by shaking her finger.

"Don't you remember from the book that there was one place where great sabrecats live near here? It was right before Eleven and Erik entered to the Manglegrove!"

"Oh, when they picked some item while the sabrecat was sleeping!"

"Yes, yes! I wonder if we can tame great sabrecats of this world with Baumren's bell as well!"

"It's worth to try!" agreed Eight.

They borrowed horses at the church. There was a post house near the entrance of Manglegrove so they could give them back there. Usually in a case like that, strangers who want to borrow horses would have been claimed to buy them since there would be no guarantee of their return. But the old noun of the church was so charitable that she trusted anyone. They didn't want to betray that kindness either so they hurried to their goal. Going over the river they headed for the freestanding signboard saying "AWARE OF GREAT SABRECATS!". They found the objective monsters soon. They were not tough enemies for the two but the purpose was not defeating them. Jessica was using her whip like taming beasts and Eight was ringing Baumren's bell over and over. In that way, two sabrecats became attached soon. A great sabrecat was a Panthera even bigger and stronger than a lion or a tiger, and could carry a man like a horse by running even faster than it. It could also go through more types of topographies than a horse so it was the best "vehicle" for the trip Eight and Jessica wanted.

2

On the same day, Eight and Jessica reached the Manglegrove when the day was still bright. Being like a deep valley surrounded by high mountains, this forest was rather unique comparing to the lands around, it was not a tropical jungle but still humid, although it was not facing any sea but having a lot of rivers all around, thus its flora was very rich with extraordinarily big trees and thickly grown plants. So in that nature, it was "natural" to get lost easily, but Eight and Jessica had a detailed map of the forest got from the noun besides the world map they had got from the Seer, so could find the ways without big troubles. They headed almost straight south for a while until they found an extremely steep cliff before a new deep valley. Then, they had to go west.

"This must be the cliff in question!" said Eight and stopped his great sabrecat like pulling the reins of a horse. There was a cliff edge leading to an incredibly deep bottom of a gorge. Eight looked into his spy-glass instinctively. The valley behind them was surrounded by same cliffs that were steep like a wall and higher than any giant trees in the forest. It was like the Manglegrove was separated into two different levels. But what drew Eight's attention the most were some shapes of monsters walking far away, beyond the impassable valley on a steppe without big trees. It was so far that he couldn't clearly catch them even with a spy-glass, but despite their distance they were visible because of their giant sizes.

"Are they...cyclopes?!" asked Eight to himself. Including the nature it was rather similar to Tryan Gully of their world. It would be most dangerous for the people of Heliodor if it had been able to come up. That upper part of the Manglegrove was inhabited by only low leveled monsters like bubble slimes and dancing devils, there was no sign of giant beasts like cyclopes had climbed up or signboards warning of them. Even for a giant like a cyclops, it seemed to be impossible to climb up the cliffs. However, if the dark lord succeeded in making Yggdrasil fall, there might be some ways up made by landslides. Eight and Jessica intended to stop it before it happens, saving not only Veronica's life but people's all over the world. That was why they were so hurrying.

They headed for west and passed beyond where the Tricky Devil that had turned the woodcutter to a dog had been living. The problem came at the next. Where they reached was a big river flowing in a canyon, and a suspension bridge broken. That river had to be coming from Yggdrasil like the others, but it was obviously impossible to go up through numberless high waterfalls and finally to the air. Also this cliff was as steep as the other and it was too difficult to just go down to the river. Eight remembered the suspension bridge between Trodain and Farebury that had been broken because of Yangus' wild jumping. It was just like that. He and Jessica, being two heroes who had saved the world might have been able to fly over the canyon with their superhuman jumps but this time it were the great sabrecats who couldn't make it.

"According to the book, Eleven and Hendrik will be able to pass here..." said Jessica. They refreshed their memories. In a world taken over by Mordegon, The falling of the Tree of Life causes a horrible earthquake and many landslides reaching all over the whole continent and some changes in the lay of the land. They remembered that Eleven and Hendrik in the story had passed here heading for Angri-La, and that the bridge had been broken as well, but they couldn't remember how it was possible to pass. Jessica, who was looking around while she was thinking, suddenly had something flashed into her mind.

"It could be this, couldn't it?" said she pointing at a giant tree just next to the edge of the cliff. It was an extremely large and thick trunked tree like many others in Manglegrove, having a highness more than twenty levels of a house. In horizontal position it could have reached to the other side of the canyon's cliff and with its thickness it also would have made them be able to go over it riding on sabrecats.

"I guess this tree must be sacrificed" said Eight. In the same morning, they had just criticized the thought of sacrificing something seems to be less important for something looks "greater". However, although trees are living creatures as well, they are in different categories from human lives. Eight took a big root of the tree like and lifted it up like when he were using Boulder Toss. Jessica used the magical expanding power of the Goddess Whip to hold the tree in order to save it from break when it falls over the canyon. They rode on their sabrecats again and hurried forward. The sun set was already close and they wanted to reach out of the forest before getting dark.

"I think we can rest now" said Jessica when they had left behind the trees and the mountains. The moon was already high up. They decided to sleep under the sky.

"So we've really challenged haven't we?"

Near the campfire, Jessica said during eating dinner. It was still unbelievable that they had come to this world.

"But in the past, we've overcome many obstacles seemed to be hopeless, right?" mentioned Eight with strangely positive attitude. It was a journey like this when he had met Jessica, and he felt that way of life comfortable.

"You're right" answered Jessica, looking upon the sky.

"Are you okay, my dear?" asked Eight. Jessica looked like she didn't really listening to him that made Eight worry a little. "Would it be possible to switch her body with Veronica in this world?". But first of all, there was another question about it.

"Jessica, according to the book, your last body switch happened a couple of days before the catastrophe, right?"

"What?...Oh, yes, the story said it they spent two nights in the first forest after that and climbed to the World Tree. So you were thinking about it too?"

Jessica was speculating - or it could be said hoping - about that if there had been a little time before Veronica and the others reached Yggdrasil, then the actual date must have been before they final body switch was supposed to happen. But if it's true, and even she had her memories about something was going to happen in the future of this world, what was going to happen to Veronica's memories about that last body switch. Was she going to see it as a dream? Eight was thinking about the same thing, and felt it without putting it into words.

"Time is a strange thing, isn't it?" said he. Actually we can say that we came to this world to change its history!"

"Yes! Even if the Luminary and his companions can save this world after that Yggdrasil falls, they can't bring back those numberless lives gonna be sacrificed!" Quoted Jessica, and had a little break before she continued.

"...Or something like that...Eight, my dear, We're said we saved the world once, but honestly speaking, I care about the lives of some few individuals I know, much more than thinking about millions without knowing who's who!"

"I understand. Million is just a number, but if you lost someone important, the pain would stick straight in your heart".

"Yes! Exactly!" shouted Jessica, and after a little smile, she said by looking at the fire.

"No, it's not about Alistair. But the main reason why I want save this world is because I want to save some individuals. Veronica, Grand Master Pang at the place we'll go next would save the others by sacrificing herself, and also...think about Jade!"

Eight first didn't know how to react that topic. In the myth, after the World Tree falls, Jade is going to be a puppet of the monsters. When Eight had read that part, he had thought about Jessica's case in Arcadia of course. But even then, he didn't know what to

say when Jessica picked it up by herself. He had no idea but holding her fiancée and stroking her by her back.

"No, you don't have to worry about me! Finally it connected to making myself clear about how much I love you! But of course, I don't want anyone being haunted something like that stupid wand! And also, in the case of Jade, she's going to be a pet of such a revolting monster! It's much more humiliating than my case! I really don't want her to experience it!"

Finally they fall asleep. At this night, they saw a dream again of Erdwin and Serenica, but in this case, it was just like several scenes passed through. It was like what they had read in the book about Eleven and his companions after Yggdrasil had fallen. It seemed that Erdwin had done similar things before, like making the Sword of Light by himself or riding on the flying whale Cetaecea. The party had defeated the Dark One had two more members, Drustan the warrior whom they had heard about in the Warrior's Inn, and Morcant the sorcerer, who had some connection with the place they were just heading for, Angri-La, and had devised the secret technique of Pearly Gates. About Drustan, it was commonly known that he had founded the kingdom of Zwaardsrust, but Morcant's identity was almost totally in a mist, the only thing was known that he had been training in Angri-La with Erdwin and they had created an eternal friendship.

3

On the next morning, Eight and Jessica took the direction to north from the place they had spent the night and saw the signpost pointing Mount Pang Lai. However, there was a border crossing point at the entrance of the mountain path with tall walls and blocked by soldiers supposed to be Heliodorian. It was even strange how big number of them were needed for guarding that kind of place.

"There's Mount Pang Lai beyond. But we've found that there are some people connected with the Darkspawn there so Sir Jasper commanded to not let anyone pass!" said one of the guards. So they were some who had been brainwashed with the theory of the "Darkspawn". But they didn't look like being haunted by monsters or filled with the power of darkness like Jasper so Eight and Jessica didn't want to break through by force. Eight got off his great sabrecat and asked.

"Please, we have to go through it. Couldn't you let us pass?"

"No way! Even we, the soldiers are not allowed, how could we let some civilians?!" replied a tall, officer-like hoplite arrogantly.

"But wait minute!" he continued shouting. "You're riding on monsters and want to go to Mount Pang Lai, eh? Aren't you companions of the Darkspawn?!"

"Oh, do we look like that, big boy?" asked Jessica in feminist tones and made a wink since she saw that the guard was going to pull out his sword. Usually her pride would have never let behave like that, especially in front of her fiancé. But Eight didn't become jealous for merely something like that. Actually it made him happy that the girl he loved was considered to be attractive by others, within some borders, of course. Jessica was understanding Eight's feelings about it so she didn't strike any sexy pose just glanced at the guards. The soldiers around instinctively reacted to her beauty but the commander came to his sense soon.

"You...you're trying to tempt us like that?! You're definitely suspicious!" We must investigate both of you!"

"If you're as obstinate as a mule, there's no other choice!" said Jessica looking at Eight. They rode on their sabrecats instantly and jumped on the rocks near the walls. Then, as they had gotten much closer to the top, they overcame it with another jump. The Heliodorian guards opened the massive gate and tried to follow the, but the two riding on especially fast monsters were already beyond their reach.

"It was a good idea to ride on great sabrecats, wasn't it?" asked Jessica as they were comfortably running over the slopes getting steeper and steeper. However, the path leading to the top of a high mountain range was endlessly long. The more distance they covered, thinking they had reached the top, the higher mountain beyond came to their sight. And also, even with the stamina of the great sabrecats it was harsh to climb such a mountain, they couldn't force them to run restlessly either. Even two whole days after they had jumped over the border crossing point and could see some clouds under them as well, they found themselves at the foot of another, higher mountain. First of all they stopped at a place they found some people had camped before and decided to spend the night there. But in that night, the dream they saw was much more piercing than the former ones.

"Morcant!...But why...?!"

The defeated evil god's body was lying in the sands, like almost covering the whole desert. Erdwin was to deal the deathblow to him with the Sword of Light. But then, someone crept behind him and stabbed him at the back with a knife. It was Morcant. After he had killed his best friend, he imbibed the energy of the Dark God and his body began to change its shape. Finally he turned into an evil wizard with horns on the both sides of his head and a red Mohawk on its top, then, he disappeared. When Drustan and Serenica rushed to the scene, there was only Erdwin's dead body. After Serenica broke down crying she helped some mysterious creatures called "The Watchers" to imprison the body of the Dark One since it was impossible to kill him without Erdwin who would have been the only one to use the Sword of Light. They bound the enormous body to a giant magic sphere and banished it high above to the sky.

"What are you going to do from now" asked Drustan to Serenica.

"I will dedicate the Sword of Light to the Heart of Yggdrasil. Then, I go for a trip. A trip that may lead to the one I will love forever!" replied the beautiful sage with sad but strong-willed eyes.

What they saw was something like Serenica reading books in the library. Somehow then knew that she was trying to find how she can go back in the time. And then, they saw a scene of Serenica holding a sword which was different from the Sword of Light but still looked like having a great secret power, and climbing a tower.

"Time's Sphere...I need only shatter it, and..."

But the sword broke and the sphere was still flawless after Serenica struck on it. She fell down to the floor like who had used the whole power.

"I just...wanted to reunite with you...!"

"Eight, you saw that dream too didn't you?!" asked Jessica on the next morning. It seemed like natural to dream about the past in this world and Jessica was sure about Eight had dreamt about the same thing. He nodded.

"I've figured it out that Morcant and Mordegon were the same person. But I couldn't imagine that he'd done such a thing!"

"It's just...too sad!" sighed Jessica with looking down and gripping her fists. That dream brought sorrow to both even personally. Both of them had already felt some similarities between the couple Erdwin and Serenica and themselves. One was the Luminary with his power of the holy thunder and the intention to save the world, and - as they knew it from Eleven's genealogy - he was a member of a royal family as well. The other was a girl with strong magical power and not only with especially attractive body but with features and eyes resembling Jessica. They were also a couple who had fallen in love with each other during the trip to save the world. To say "like Eight and Jessica themselves" would have been a posturing, but in fact they were a couple who had defeated an evil god and felt much sympathy towards Erdwin and Serenica.

"But now, I feel more than ever that I must stop Mordegon's intrigue!" quoted Jessica with eyes full of justice sense and revenge as well. Eight was loving that looking of hers too. Brave and beautiful. Of course, when she finally cornered the enemy, she always realized that there would be more important things than revenge. Jessica had learnt that during the trip with Eight, but even then, she felt completely different against someone was keeping the whole world in fear, and against someone was lying on the ground and begging for mercy. As they were thinking something like that, it took a little time until they noticed that Munchie had been acting alone. Eight's grandfather took his form of a Dragovian again and came back with the mysterious woman called herself the Seer.

"Well, well, we met again!" said the latter.

"Ms...Seer? What are you doing here?" asked Eight but the other laughed.

"There is much that connect me to Angri-La. But it doesn't matter now. I presume you had known about Mordegon's true identity".

It seemed she had read in their minds again and talked about the dream like a one knowing its details.

" He is a rather foolish fellow. There's nothing in his head save how to improve his magical power!" said she like someone who had personal connections with Mordegon or the party of Erdwin. She looked feeling sorry.

"I have been thinking that you were similar to Erdwin and Serenica from we met for the first time in Heliodor, and now, I am sure about that you won't disappoint me!" continued she and looked into Eight's eyes.

"You have the power that is very close to the one that the Luminary of this world has. And unlike him, your power seems to be already bloomed".

So she could see Eight's hidden power too. Jessica wanted to introduce Eight as a leader of the team that had defeated the evil god of another world but rather didn't say anything because she felt it would have led to a brag about herself as well. The Seer continued.

" Eleven, the Luminary of Erdrea is still green. Being led by the Arborian twins, he must be going along the Axis of Life" and wants to make it as quick as he can, without knowing about the intersecting Axis of Death!"

"the Axis of Death?"

When Jessica had switched her body with Veronica for the last time, she had noticed about something she remembered this time. She knew that there was a family having billions of stars including the Sun around. Its center was at the direction of Sagittarius and on the opposite side there was Gemini. The line connecting those was called the Axis of Life. The Gemini was called after twins that would never fight against each other but always trying to promote the other one, and it was the symbol of something would lead to the source of the creating power. Gemini was obviously appearing in Veronica and Serena and Sagittarius was clearly the top of the Tree of Life. But the Axis of Death supposed to be intersecting it was absolutely new to both. The Seer explained.

"The Axis of Death is what vertically crosses the Axis of Life. So it is the axis connecting Virgo and Pisces.

"Vertically?"

"Just think about it! Something which is completely different from another is not what is contrary to it by a hundred and eighty degrees, but the one what differs by ninety degrees. What conflicts to justice from quite the opposite side is just another justice. even if they crashed, they would merely be pushed back a little but they can go on their ways again and wouldn't deviate from the truth. The evil always comes from right beside. If something crashed you from the side, you would definitely turn away and it would be rather difficult to find your original way".

"Well...that must be true!" realized both. The Seer continued.

"If you walk on the road, you can easily notice someone coming from the opposite side but you can easily miss something coming from right beside, as well as if someone lies to you by saying everything quite opposite to the truth you can easily see through it but lies saying things half true are easy to deceive. So the most dangerous thin is not what is coming against you from the front. It is what coming to you from quite beside!"

"I see!" said Eight.

"In this case"- continued the Seer -"Our Eleven is walking along the Axis of Life between Gemini and Sagittarius almost unconsciously, but without knowing what he is doing, he would be easily smashed by the Axis of Death connecting Virgo and Pisces..."

The Seer turned her face to the direction the Tree of Life was supposed to be.

"People call me the Seer but I am not exactly the one who tells what is going to happen in the future. I would describe myself more like a Prophet who delivers the message of the God to the people. So I don't know exactly what is happening but I am sure about that there must be someone among the ones tempted by Mordegon who has a quite different temperament from that of Gemini, with the weakness of Pisces which is following the law of the jungle, feeling nothing but jealousy towards siblings or friends and sacrificing them for our own profit, like a big fish that eats the small one".

"It's...Jasper!" shouted Jessica after a little thinking and Eight nodded to it.

"Yes, Jasper is not Hendrik's brother but they were raised as true brothers but Jasper was jealous about Hendrik who'd always promoted a little earlier".

"So finally, you two got it..." said the Seer.

"But then, what is Virgo?" asked Jessica.

"The week point of Virgo is a temperament that just cannot create at all like a virgin who cannot have a baby, and wants to absorb and imbibe everything.

"Oh, that's Mordegon himself!" shouted both.

"Exactly! If you let him act as he wishes, he may imbibe all of the energy of the Tree of Life and change the world to something that cannot create anything anymore!"

What Eight and Jessica had read in the book about Erdrea, that was exactly going to happen. And they were here to prevent that tragedy.

"As I said before, Mordegon is a rather foolish fellow..." murmured the Seer by walking towards the edge of the cliff. Eight was to follow her to tell how dangerous it was but Chen Mui stopped him.

"Let her go! She must know what she's doing!" said his grandfather and turned back to Munchie.

"She is...can it be possible?" murmured he just before changing to a mouse but Eight and Jessica couldn't hear it. They were thinking about what the Seer had told.

"The Luminary...of course it's not someone like that..." said Jessica like wanting to correct what she had said before, and gave a little bit forced smile.

"I'm no longer the one who thinks revenge comes first. After I met you, I had chances many times to see with my own eyes how a true hero that's called "the Luminary" should be".

Jessica said it by tilting her head onto Eight's shoulder. Eight held her head tenderly.

"By the way, it was written in the book of this world that Queen Marina said the Luminary is someone who never ever gives up in any situation".

"Yes! So we must not give up our purpose why we came to this world either!"

They held each other's hands as looking up the mountain still rising high above. For the next, it was a cave they had to go through. A long cave inhabited by even stronger monsters , but it seemed to be an almost straight shortcut to Angri-La that was expectedly a one more day trip away on that route. But it was needed to be even more careful. Black dragons like the one they had defeated in Heliodor - though not too many - were naturally inhabiting in the cave and also rockbombs that had been terrifying any adventurer were there, much bigger and harder than the ones in their world. They had to leave their great sabrecats they had been riding on, but they defeated a new monster called dragon rider of which dragon was tamable and let the two ride on its back. Unfortunately that dragon's flying abilities couldn't make it possible to fly straight to Yggdrasil but it was big and fast enough to accomplish the remaining trip to Angri-La in the planned time. Angri-La was the ultimate sanctuary for trainee monks. The disciples were about to be brought out all of their hidden powers through some incredibly hard trainings that was beyond imagination of not only the general public but even royal guarding soldiers. Thanks to that, there were some succeeded disciples who became to be able to fight against a unit of hoplites alone and barehanded. Even near the entrance they saw people doing pushups by standing on only two fingers of their both hands. Usually the crown princes of Dundrasil had to train here for years before their enthronements as well, but it had not come true for Eleven because of the fall of Dundrasil sixteen years before.

When Eight and Jessica arrived at it was already evening so they were told to be able to meet the Grand Master only on the next morning. They also needed to rest in order to get the best result so they went to bed quickly. However, after they had fallen asleep, Munchie left the inn following the mouse supposed to be the he had met at the Heliodorian Foothills. They were heading to some strange metal object.

"Well, it's much like the Alchemy Pot!" said Chen Mui to the dark blue haired Seer. It was called the Fun-Size Forge, a device reminding that pot which Trode's had been keeping in his wagon. Both were used for creating something new using a mysterious technique or magic that was incomprehensible for human.

"It's a forge but you can process not only metals but wood or cloth, anything!"

"So it's truly the hidden technique what I thought! But for what do you want me to use this?"

"Well, you know it don't you!" said the Seer mysteriously and gave a wink. Chen Mui opened his eye widely as he got the point.

"Oh, I see!"

4

"What?! You're saying the Tree of Life will fall soon and millions are going to die?!"

On the next morning, Eight and Jessica, unsparing any rudeness, interviewed Grand Master Pang as early as they could. The Grand Master who was ruling Angri-La was supposed to be teacher of Rab when he was young so they had imagined an elder person about eighty years old. However, the real Grand Master Pang was a young woman, looked like in her twenties, with so beautiful face and attractive body that it was in no way inferior to even Jessica. Jessica herself, having seen the picture of the Grand Master in the myth of Erdrea at the story of the Void, that she had defined as not her actual figure but the one of her young ages, when she actually saw the young beauty, she had to ask again if she was really Grand Master Pang. After they learned that it was correct, they explained the situation.

"Hey, what's that nonsense you have come before me with, young ones?!" asked back the Grand Master. It was just an ordinary reaction. Even how strongly they claimed its truth, Pang's answer remained as it was far from believable. In fact, thinking about it calmly, it was clearly impossible to give a credible explanation how they knew something like that. The other one was the top of one of the highest sanctuaries of the world so they had hoped she was going to feel something beyond of human logic, but that great responsibility had to be the very reason why she couldn't swallow such a brainstorming idea. The Grand Master opened her arms and shook her head.

"Phew, I've had numbers of troubled disciples but you two really take the cake with your humbugs that you've come from another world to save this one! I'm rather busy so I beg you to go home!"

Jessica looked around the Field of Disciplines that was so big that could have contained a whole city, and looked into Eight's eyes.

"Even she can't trust words, Eight, why don't you show her?"

Eight nodded mutely. On the Field, there was a man training at a place that was close to them comparing to the whole area but still far away from everyone else. He was about to challenge an orc king, an enormous boar monster that could smash a house. When Eight recognized that the beast was far enough from the man, he pushed his arm up, charged his magical power and cast Zap against it. The orc king was hit by the mighty thunder and was consumed by its extraordinary power.

"That...That's clearly the holy thunder, using the power of God!" said a little boy next to the Grand Master who was her adjutant and despite his ages was called the High Lama by others.

"And simply the fact that he can defeat an orc king with just one Zap!

The High Lama had read about the records about the legendary Erdwin's striving for his enlightenment under the first Grand Master, Ai Yi. According to that, Erdwin had swept away four orc kings at one time when he had succeeded to master the spell of Kazap, but using only Zap to achieve such a power proved an already enlightened power of the Luminary.

"Grand Master, this..."

"Silence!" shouted Pang at her adjutant by showing a meaning expression, but she kept being stone-faced when she contacted with Eight and Jessica.

"I see, so you are capable for a little! Very intriguing! I will listen to you if you can pass the trial I'll give you!" said she. Eight and Jessica made a face they were going to face any kind of harsh discipline. Pang went on.

"There is a giant man-eater eerie bird at the summit of Mount Pang Lai. I have been asking for my disciples to defeat it, but what a big shame, none of them had succeeded yet! So if you can do that, I shall consider about cooperating with you!"

The two accepted it easily. To defeat a monster was almost their regular business. Speaking of an eerie bird, Jessica had defeated one in Veronica's body as well. For this next one, they had not read about in the myth of Erdrea, but they had been admitted their powers even by the God Bird Empyrea, so there was no possibility to fail this time either.

The summit tunnel was steep like the ones they had come through to Angri-La, but they managed to use the dragonrider's dragon again, so it didn't take too much times. That was the place leading to the Void, where Grand Master Pang was going to go if Yggdrasil really falls, followed by Rab and finally Eleven. Its height was even much over the temple of Angri-La, therefore it was natural to be extremely cold there, but as they got out from the tunnel, they were caught by a horribly strong blizzard outside.

"What's this?!" Isn't it abnormal?!" asked Jessica. It reminded the time when they arrived at Marta's house in Orkutsk area. But this blizzard was somehow different from either that, or the one she had experienced in Snifleheim in Veronica's body. That was a summit over many of the clouds. Snow clouds were much below and it was considered to be impossible to have that amount of precipitation here.

"Jessica, look at that!"

Eight found the weather abnormal as well and he thought that there was some monster behind it, so he was looking around for the cause. He was right, there were monsters visible even in that blizzard. The man-eater eerie bird in question was fighting its desperate struggle against two boreal serpents.

"What?! What the hell is going on here?!" asked Jessica most surprisingly.

The man-eater bird had all the colors of the rainbow in its feathers, it was huge, still not reaching the size of Empyrea but even bigger than the elysium bird of the Eerie Eyrie, not comparable to the natural birds of prey. It exhaled a huge amount of flame from its beak but it was not enough to repel the blizzard of a doubled power. The boreal serpent was a long built flying dragon like the ethereal serpent Jessica had seen in Arboria. It had a power approximately equal to a cyclops and could fly around speedily. If there were only one there, the giant bird could have defeated it, but two seemed to be too much. So actually Eight and Jessica wouldn't have needed to defeat it, they just had to wait until it finally dies in the fight against the overpowering dragons. But the two found something. It was the nest of that enormous bird. And inside it, there were two creatures that were much bigger than natural birds but even then it was clear that they were the babies of that giant bird.

"Eight, don't you think she is a mother wants to protect her babies?" asked Jessica.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same..."

"...In that case..."

They were thinking. The giant bird was said to be eating humans. If she had not been in that predicament, she would have definitely been about to eat them too. But in that case, she was a mother protecting her children. She was desperately defending against those two dragons.

"No! I can't let that bird be killed!" shouted Jessica.

"You're right! We must help her!" screamed Eight too. They stood before the boreal serpents. Being the heroes had saved the world, it wouldn't have been difficult to kill those monsters in a usual field, but it was at the top of a high mountain without enough oxygen and extremely cold. The place was clearly advantageous to the enemy. And for Eight and Jessica there was the wounded mother bird and her babies behind they had to protect.

"At least, we must take them far away from the birds!" said Eight, and Jessica nodded. They jumped far to both sides from the enemies and lure them to the opposite side of the summit, near a precipice.

"Jessica, watch out" shouted Eight. They noticed that there was nothing but the edge of the cliff behind them. One step back would have led to a bottomless depth. It was exactly like they had burnt their bridges, no mistake was allowed, one wrong move would have ended all. But that was the situation made Eight and Jessica rise their powers. They put the defenses on the line in order to give their attack power an incredible boost. Being veiled in a red aura, having their hairs bristling up, one used the Dragon Slash and the other the Twin Dragon Lash. Each boreal serpent - with length of a ship - took one of those powerful attacks that thrust them away. Soon after Eight and Jessica dealt them the deathblow and ran to the giant bird and her babies. The mother bird lowered her head and said in human's language.

"Children of human, why had you saved me?"

"Hey, how could we just see you die by protecting your family?!" asked Jessica back.

"I am the Hybird, bird of the Purgatory" said the mother bird. "I am coming and going between the worlds of life and death and eating mostly human's meat. Therefore, humans must see a mortal foe in me.

"Yes, we have heard that" replied Eight. "Our mission was to defeat the man-eater eerie bird".

"Then, why didn't you defeat me?" asked the Hybird wonderingly.

"You know!" said Jessica strongly. "We can't kill mothers protecting their children! Don't think we are just like those cruel monsters!"

When the Hybird heard that, she made a face looked like smiling.

"Oh, so there still are so kind human beings! Very well! I shall help you when you need, if I can!" The giant bird closed her eyes and concentrated. Hold on to me! I will connect my mind with the head of Angri-La. If it succeeds, we can move there in a moment".

After Eight and Jessica had held the legs of the Hybird, the area was enveloped by mysterious lights and the next moment, there were at the Field of Disciplines in Angri-La. The Hybird was summoned by Grand Master Pang so they could go back with her.

"You have passed the trial indeed!" said Pang with a smiling face. The two asked if the trial had not been about defeating the Hybird but the Grand Master Laughed.

"It was a trick from the beginning! I tried if you had the spirit of protecting the weak even in return for your own loss. And you did it! You defended a man-eater that could be literally called a mortal foe by putting your own life in danger! And moreover, You have succeeded to defeat boreal serpents with unleashing Blaze of Glory! I have nothing to say but 'Bravo'!"

Being praised so much, Eight and Jessica felt even embarrassed.

"You are undoubtedly great heroes! I wish the last prince of Dundrasil had trained here and become like you! Then I wouldn't need to worry about the world..."

Grand Master Pang looked like having something in her mind. Seeing the wondering two, the High Lama explained.

"Many years ago, Lord Robert, the actual crown prince of Dundrasil was a most troubled disciple, as I have heard. In fact he could never pass the trial of defeating a boreal serpent by unleashing Blaze of Glory, it is said he had always fled from the battle".

They knew from the book that Rab had been the disciple of Pang, but Eight was curious about one thing.

"We heard that Lord Robert was the youngest about the three brothers. Didn't his elder brothers train here too?

"What?" asked Grand Master Pang with a wondering expression but soon they said by laughing.

"I see it is told so in your world! In a fairy tale of a myth, when you read about three brothers from which the oldest and the middle one had failed but the youngest finally succeeded, it's a story of one man in fact! A metaphor of one man's failures and of that what he learns from them until finally succeeds! Actually Robert had deviated from the path of righteousness so many times that it could be natural to tell his story as he was a youngest among a hundred brothers!"

"Oh, I see..."

Jessica remembered the children's books she had been read when she was little. There were many stories about three brothers of sisters like that, but she hadn't known that rule's true meaning until this time.

"By the way" said Pang, "I have told that I was going to listen to you if you passed the trial. You have saved this Hybird with risking your own lives. She is wounded now so you have to wait a little, but riding on her back, you can fly even to the Tree of Life!"

"What?" said both surprisingly.

"Oh, so you haven't heard everything! The Hybird is coming and going between the worlds of life and death. At the summit of this mountain, there is the Void where the souls of the dead people are invited to. After, the souls are brought to Yggdrasil in order to be reborn. The Hybird has the mission to bring those souls. Look at this!"

Grand Master Pang showed an emblem carved in stone. There was a bird with two necks, expanding to left and right.

"The two-headed eagle of Heliodor?" asked Jessica, but Pang shook her head.

"It is just how they are using it with misunderstanding! Originally it is worshiped as a bird dividing the light and the darkness, moving its head between them. It doesn't have two heads, it is a description of moving. Look the shape between the lines of the moving neck!"

Eight and Jessica noticed the lines that were connected at the bottom, but opened to left and right more and more as they went up.

"Oh, it's Aries!" shouted Jessica.

"Exactly!" said Grand Master Pang. "Beginning on the day when the lengths of the light and the darkness are the same. That could be seen as the horns of a ram, but also as a plant comes into bud in that very season. And, a moving neck of the Hybird living between light and darkness! That is what the Heliodorians misunderstood as "a two-headed eagle" that looked so valiant for them that they began to use it as their coat of arms, without knowing its true meaning!"

"Oh, I see!" said Eight to Jessica, "So Heliodorian kings had that fault, and that might be the reason why Mordegon could possess King Carnelian!"

It was half as a monologue but Pang could hear it as well and said.

"Well, that would explain a lot! Now I see why they broke off the relations with us..."

5

Eight and Jessica went back to the inn. The Hybird had promised to take them to Yggdrasil but the wounds she had gotten from the boreal serpents were severe and they had wait until the next morning. The two could only pray tragedy the tragedy of the World Tree was not going to happen until they reach there. But there was another surprise for them at the bedroom.

"So finally you came! I was waiting for you!" said Chen Mui in his human form and showed some clothes and helmets to the couple.

"I've found that there is some technique in this world which is very similar to the Alchemy Pot! I'd like to show you something! Look!"

He brought first a robe they had seen somewhere quite recently.

"I've revised Jessica's divine bustier! I've lengthened its skirt using some techincolour dreamclothes I've found in this world and dyed the boots and the gloves yellow. And also I've cut a little out from the sage's robe. If you put it on, finally you'll look just the same!"

"Same as what?!" asked Jessica surprisingly.

"You know, since Eight's armor changed to that tunic which is supposed to be the same as the legendary hero wore. And I revised the thinking cap with the Fun-Size Forge, so now it looks like that coronet, even if it's not as strong".

The two were starting to understand what Chen Mui wanted to tell.

"Then, what about the circlet?" asked Jessica.

"I forged your golden tiara for that. Its strength is satisfying as well!"

Jessica made a little discontented expression for having been her stuffs searched among, but she agreed that doing as Chen Mui's plan was probably going to produce some mental effects as well at the event was going to happen in at least a few days.

"Okay, let's build on that strategy! Do you agree, Eight?"

"Yes, that's a good idea!"

After that, they prepared a lot of things in front of the mirror. They got some excellent purple dyeing solution by blending the slimedrop with the sparkly sap which Jessica soaked her reddish brown hair in for long time.

"It's a good color isn't it?!" shouted Chen Mui satisfyingly. "Eight, don't move your head! I'm gonna make your hair as magnificent as the Mohawk of mine!" hardened his grandson's hair with finessence, a liquid that was said to make everything spiked and rugged.

"And here comes this!" added he, taking something like a couple of small, blue-colored glasses.

"This comes from a precious stone called blue eye, cut into extremely thin, and if you attach it on your eyeball, it will make your eye's color look different! There are many types of color of it!"

Eight had his eyes opened by surprising anyway, so it was easy for Chen Mui to put the lenses on them.

"How do you feel? Are your eyes all right?" asked the grandfather.

"Yes...I think there's no problem..." replied Eight.

"Fine! Now, I can say, both of you are getting more and more similar to them!"

On the next morning, Grand Master Pang was surprised the most when Eight and Jessica had come before her.

"Well..was that really so essential for you two to do this? Anyway, the Hybird has prepared! It's supposed to be impossible that she lets some human beings to ride on her back, I guess there is no precedent for it in the whole history of Erdrea! And she has her mission as well! So there's a chance only once, you must hurry if you don't want to miss it!

Pang was smiling when she saw the behaviors of the couple who seemed to be understanding the meaning to be the Luminary, but even then were still young. The Hybird started her flight toward Yggdrasil. Munchie stayed in Eight's pocket as usual, but neither Eight nor Jessica could not notice that the other mouse was coming together, holding to the bird's tail feathers.

"It seems a long time ago when we last flew so high like now" mentioned Jessica, and she remembered the time they had fought against the evil god Rapthorne on the back of Empyrea. It was like the whole world unfolded before them, they saw the high mountains below and it looked as one great snowfield how the clouds were covering them. But they were heading to a place even higher than they actually were. The World Tree was like a huge mountain floating in the air and it was visible well from Angri-La too because of its size but it took a long time and distance to reach it. The Hybird was flying as fast as a living creature could never have done, but even then, it was only the landscape directly below that was moving, they couldn't feel getting close to Yggdrasil. Eight found that it was boring to just look and expect some changes so he looked to his pocket to check if Munchie was alright, but there was no sign of the mouse.

"Munchie?!" shouted he and looked around hastily.

"What happened?" asked Jessica worryingly. "Don't say he fell down!"

She moved backwards carefully to not have herself fall on the giant bird's back.

"Oh, don't worry my dear, everything's alright!" smiled she. Eight turned his back and saw Munchie with the other mouse. He wondered if the Seer came with them as well, but also understood that there had to be a reason for it. They looked forward again. The Tree of Life was visible clearly. They hadn't the faintest idea about what structure would have made it float but it was a most beautiful scene indeed. Certainly a divine mystery. As they were being fascinated by it, they saw a light rising up to reach the tree from below. It was still too far away to see it clearly but some colors of the rainbow were able to be defined.

"It seems there is something happened" said the Hybird who had noticed the change quickly. Eight and Jessica remembered it from the book.

"The bridge made of rainbows! Veronica and the others are already climbing!" shouted Jessica.

The time had come. Until that, there was no way to know the exact time where Eleven's party was going to reach the World Tree and they could only hope that they were going to make it before them. So they didn't think about it too much, just did their bests every day. However, they had just realized how little time they had.

"There's no more time we can have!" said Jessica. "Please! Hurry!"

6

After Eleven's party had left Arboria, they passed the highlands and entered the First Forest after spending a night. Being right under the Tree of Life, it was queerly rich in nature despite its height, a deep forest where a person gets lost pretty easily.

"Holy cow! It's a much deeper jungle than the Manglegrove!" mentioned Erik surprisingly.

"Okay, kids, stay with the group, don't get lost!" yelled Sylvando with his natural high tension but the others seemed rather strained. But among them, Veronica, who would have tried to walk at the head, looked more absentminded than her sister. She was curious about the dream she had seen at the former night. It was a little different from when she had been switching her body with Jessica before. The former ones had made her really feel she had experienced those things but she couldn't actually feel it about this last one.

"Serena, was I behaving weird yesterday?" asked she to her sister.

"What do you mean?"

"You know! You must have found that I wasn't actually me for some times in the last couple of months!"

"Yes, of course. But yesterday, I'm sure it was you!" confirmed Serena with her usual healing smile to her severely questioning sister who had her fists on her waist.

"Then, this time it was really a dream!"

It was a phenomenon so confusing. She had seen a dream in which Jessica's fiancé had taken her to a famous fortune-teller and she had finally found a clue, but if it had been only a dream, not one of the usual body switches, then it couldn't have transmitted to the people of the other world. Veronica couldn't know that the last time they had been supposed to switch their bodies, Jessica had already come to this world.

The First Forest was deep and fantastic. It was like a trackless jungle with its mysterious inhabitants and unbelievable sights that none of the party members had ever seen. What they defined as a big tree, was in fact a monster called mosstodon of which stout arms caused much pain to the members. There were also some pine needlers camouflaging in the green and attempting surprise attacks on them with their giant needle-like weapons.

"Veronica! Cast Sizzle!" shouted Eleven when he realized that all of the members were keeping some distance from the enemies. Veronica still couldn't organize her mind but came to her sense by Eleven's voice. Her most important mission was to protect the Luminary. Since she had been in Jessica's body, she had been able to catch the feeling of the full bloomed magical power, so it became easier to increase her own thus the flame of her Sizzle was much stronger than before. She felt it wouldn't take a long time to learn Kasizz a higher leveled spell in the Sizz series. The flame killed all the pine needlers.

"Okay, all of you, don't be dizzy, just go forward!" shouted she at the other members.

"Hey, when did you wake up from your dreams, kid?!" teased Erik, seeing the girl got back her vigor and running forward like a little girl she actually looked like. Under the Tree of Life she felt her heart being purified and excited about the new power they were going to get soon under divine protection. Although it still was a long way remained before them. The forest was continuing like surrounding the top of the mountain and they had to go around since its steepness made it clearly impossible to climb in a straight line. At some points they had to climb long lianas. After all, they spent one night around the middle of their way and continued the trip on the next morning. All had slept well in the healing nature under the World Tree so they could challenge to the next day's hardships with their full power, they managed to defeat easily even the infanticore, a lion with wings and six legs and with a size bigger than an elephant which was guarding the entrance of the upper areas of the forest.

"If it was a lion guarding here, there might be a dragon on the summit!" said Serena.

"Oh, come on, Serena, it's not a fairy tale!" reproved Veronica, but Rab didn't agree with her.

"Veronica, my little lassie, fairy tales have much deeper meanings than ya think when ya hear it as a kid. I woulndnae wonder if this divine forest were a source of many child-stories!"

Serena was referring to an epic poem she had read in her childhood, in which a hero heading for Fairyland had to go through three gates guarded by monsters, three ursa minors at the first, three infanticores at the second, and a huge dragon at the final one. In that Fairyland of the story there was no winter and the nature was evergreen so Serena felt their current residence rather similar to it. Actually when they reached almost the top, the seven were obstructed by a blue dragon, a giant dragon exhaling blizzard as well as flame. The beast, having a mouth as big as a man could have walked easily inside, must not have been an easy prey for them. Jade attacked first by kicking his huge chin from the bottom with a Harvest Moon, then Veronica cast Frizzle and Eleven cut him with a Dragon Slash by his platinum sword but the enemy still seemed indifferent and struck back with a chilly breath instantly. Serena just managed to mitigate its power with the Hymn of Ice but when their view became clear they got an additional attack which thrust Eleven fifty steps away. But then, the three who were defending the back jumped forward. Erik grabbed the nobleman's knife he had received just a few days before in Snifleheim in one hand, the eagle dagger in the other and quickly slipped near the beasts breast in order to narcotize him with a Sleep Hit. The attack was prevented by the hard scales so it couldn't reach the nerves but the giant dragon shook his head because of pain that made Sylvando be able to attack him with "Have a Ball" techniques and made him confused. Taking advantage of that spare moment, Rab cast Zammle, the higher leveled spell of Zam which he had learnt during asleep at the last night. It succeeded as a critical spell and made the blue dragon recede. Finally, Eleven dealt the deathblow with Zap. It was truly a victory thanks to teamwork. Eleven was moved by the feeling of the bonds with his companions and gave high five to each of them.

After they had defeated the blue dragon, the party reached the summit of the mountain. It was already evening again so they pitched their tents there, but they knew that it was just a little more to the altar they had to set the orbs to. In order to be able to use their full power next morning, they decided to rest and surrounded the campfire. During the dinner, by Veronica's suggestion, Serena took her harp and played a beautiful heart-healing melody. Listening to that tone, each member looked up at the World Tree. There was a light supposed to be coming from its soul that made it look like an illuminated tree of the Holy Night. Everyone's heart was full. On the next day, they were going to arrive at the holy Yggdrasil that would give them some new power, something that makes them be able to fight against the dark lord who had turned Eleven's and his companions' lives around. Eleven was worrying a little if he can really control that power. Erik, who had progressed on the path of being a thief, an outlaw, but had repented by the words of the Seer who had told him to atone for his sins by leading the Luminary, and finally, he had learnt that no matter if it had been an atonement or not, he had already gotten a priceless treasure which was called the ties of friendship. Veronica and Serena thought it had been all for this that they had always been together. Veronica had always been optimistic and stepping forward while Serena was the one who had always been supporting her sister who sometimes had become a little careless. They had been completing each other perfectly. In their childhood, Serena had not been able to learn attacking magic spells like her sister and had always been sighing over that she was never going to become a great sage like Serenica, but Veronica had solaced her with that idea of supplying each other's weakness which had sounded most heartening for her. The twins had the mission to lead the luminary to Yggdrasil but finally both knew that the bonds with the party members had been created not by merely a mission but much more than that. Sylvando had not told it for the members that he had left his home after a serious argument with his father almost twenty years before and he had sworn to make everybody in the world smile. After that, no matter where he had been or whom he had talked to, he had never lost that smile from his face in any situation. Sometimes it looked like careless or easygoing but he was always serious about what he was actually doing, appeasing the stress that others around were feeling. But even for him, it was beyond his expectations to find some friends he could rely on so much. He felt he could even reveal his true identity to them. He decided to tell everything about his past after the big event on the next day. Jade had had a deep regret inside of her heart which since she had not been able to save the infant Eleven as a child herself. That would had seemed never going to heal until she had met the grown-up Eleven. Since she had let the infant go at the waterfall, she had become to fear of heights awfully that actually has still remained a little bit thus she was slightly worrying about the next day to climb up to Yggdrasil. However, when she had seen Eleven falling again from the very waterfall she had overcome that fear and jumped after him to save his life. Since then, her acrophobia had been softened a much. Rab had lost his country and his family sixteen years before. He had already abdicated the throne that time and even after, sometimes he had been feeling that he wouldn't have regretted if his life had ended there as well since he had already lived enough. But even then he had always found some will to live in himself, and also felt it would have been sorry for the younger generations to leave them. So he had raised Jade to be a strong fighter and had always been looking for some power that can successfully oppose the dark lord Mordegon who had been supposed to be destroyed his kingdom. Then, he had met his grandson he thought had been dead about, as well as his companions who gave them a feeling of having a new family of a younger generation.

And for Eleven himself, everybody looked like a dear family member that was more important than anything. The companions' kindness was most gracious for him. He was in fact the youngest member of the party who had been a little overprotected which made him feeling ashamed but also felt a firm sense of mission to protect them as well, being the reincarnation of Erdwin, the Luminary.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pooped!" claimed Sylvando. The party members moved into the tents for his usual cheerful comments about "beauty sleep".

"Veronica, our leaves bloomed at the same time, so it will fall in the same time too, won't it?" asked Serena after they had lain in the bed.

"Hmm...I don't know. You've always been a bit slow, to be honest..." replied Veronica without looking at her sister.

"But I hope so" added she later. Serena felt relieved by those words. She had always been running after Veronica but she had never felt dissatisfied about it. When the relationship gets bad between a one who is standing out and a one who is supporting, it is only when both have negative emotions toward the other. It often happens that the supporter gets jealous about the one who attracts people's attention, while the one who is standing out looks down on the supporter, treating him as like he were nobody. But it never happens between two who can accept and respect the other's part mutually. Serena was wishing to support her sister in the future like before and Veronica considered Serena as the most important person to her whom she had to protect. "I have to withdraw for making the other shine". A saint had something like that, and Veronica found herself actually feeling its meaning more and more. She had to protect her sister and Eleven, the Luminary even in return for her own life.

"Great Serenica, please protect us!" prayed she in an especially small voice which couldn't be heard even by Serena.

About the same time, around the middle of the forest, there was a human's shadow crawling. He was avoiding anything would make noise, choosing the darkest parts even in the night, but when he had to go out of the woods, his long blond hair and his platinum-colored armor couldn't avoid shining in the moonlight. Once when he stepped out under the sky, there was a giant shadow stood in his way. Looking up to it, he realized it was a moosifer, a devil-like monster with hooves. The beast spoke with a deep groaning voice.

"A human again! I've missed one group climbing yesterday, but now, I won't! Prepare yourself!"

The man remain totally unperturbed and said with a small but calm voice.

"Silence!"

The moosifer got most surprised for that reaction and lowered his face to see that daring man at close range. The man held something up.

"Is it so dark that you can't see this?!" asked he.

"Hell! This is..."

What the man in the platinum armor showed was an eerie black orb which made the demon make a face most fearing thus he stood out of the man's way.

"Idiot subordinates!" cursed the man and went further.

7

On the next morning, Eleven's party woke up early and rushed to the altar. When they set the orbs, they started to shine strongly, and finally made a bridge of rainbows that continued to far up, until the World Tree.

"So is it mean to climb there through this?" asked Eleven. He and his companions put their foots on the rainbow. Then, it started to bring them with a pleasant speed, up and up. Actually Yggdrasil was high above any mountain of the world so it would have taken more than a whole day to climb up from the altar on the bridge of rainbows which was connecting to it like a spiral, but the moving rainbow gave them a speed like a horse running with its full power so they arrived at the top soon.

"So this is the Tree of Life! How mystical!" said Serena deeply impressed. In fact, Yggdrasil was the most mystical thing they had ever seen. At that altitude they were supposed to be frozen and unable to breath, but they actually felt like they were on the land and being healed by the tree's immeasurable vital energy. The dropping dew had the effectiveness just like a medical herb. When they grabbed a liana it pulled them up automatically so they could climb this divine tree as high as a mountain much more quickly than they had thought on the way was supposed to be endless at first. It didn't take so long time to reach the middle.

"That will be the Heart of Yggdrasil!" shouted Jade.

After a walk they found something like an entrance of a cave made of branches and leaves. Inside, there was a great natural hall, having the Source of Life in the middle. The World Tree has so big leaves that there could have been a whole village on each, and they could walk on it just as on the land. Eleven's party approached its soul which looked like an extremely huge transparent egg protected by strong branches. They found that there was a sword floating inside.

"Oh! This must be the sword of the legendary Luminary! It's so fascinating!" excited Sylvando and touched the barrier of Yggdrasil's heart without noticing. He pulled his hand back instantly like having it hit by lightning.

"Aye, I doubt the World Tree would let any but the one who bears Her mark near Her holiest of holies" said Rab by thinking. "Eleven, laddie! No doubt that only you can do it! Only you can wield the weapon destined to dispel the darkness!"

Eleven touched the barrier as his grandfather had told. Then, the mark on his left hand started to emit a strong light, the surrounding branches were withdrawn and the barrier disappeared. There was only the floating Sword of Light waiting for the hero who can wield it. Eleven was too impressed to run for it, he walked slowly in the direction.

However, in that very moment, a dark magical sphere flew toward him from the back. It hit him at the back of his head, though didn't thrust him away but even then, he fell down. The branches instantly surrounded the Heart of Yggdrasil again. The companions turned back and saw a blond man in a platinum armor.

"Damn you, Jasper! How did you find us?!" shouted Erik, but the knight of Heliodor was just laughing.

"Find you? Did you witless vermin not realize I was following you?!"

"Jasper! You...!" started Jade but she soon found she had no words to express her feelings so she came at him with blistering speed and gave him a powerful kick by jumping. But it was bounced back by a superhuman barrier of darkness.

"Now, now, Princess Jade! Such behavior is most boorish, don't you think? You are utterly powerless to hurt what I am now!"

Jasper held his creepy black orb up high and untied the power inside. The power of destruction shook the whole space around the Heart of Yggdrasil. It thrust away even Eleven and his companions who had gone through numerous tough fights.

"Now! Your sacrifice shall pave the way for my ascent of gory!"

For the first of all, Jasper aimed at Eleven and cast the spell of Zammle. Next, he thrust away Erik who had jumped up against him for first, then he wielded his sword quickly against Jade who came to him with her lance. It was even hard to guard the attack for Jade and she was also thrust away. Veronica's Frizzle was bounced by the barrier and Rab's Crackle was powerless as well. Sylvando tried to tie him up with a Trammel Lash of the Dragontail whip which was so strong that could hold a weight of 100 people, but Jasper tore it up easily. Then he shot some dark beam out from his orb that was so powerful that even Serena's protecting aura couldn't prevent it.

"Ha, ha, ha! Everything is useless! This place shall be your place of death!" claimed Jasper. He easily parried some more attacks by Eleven and his companions with the power of darkness, and finally, unleashed the full force of magic of the orb. Eleven's party members were thrust away to several directions. Even then they tried to resist and crawled back with their dying body near the enemy, but all fell down before Jasper enveloped by the power of darkness.

"It's a power...the like of which we've never seen...! Could he be...?"

Rab felt the power of the Dark Lord in Jasper's horribly strong dark aura. It was just the same sign he had felt when Dundrasil had been destroyed. Jasper, without even noticing him, slowly walked toward the Heart of Yggdrasil, emitting dark aura like a superhuman being.

"So this is the Heart of Yggdrasil! Whosoever controls it, controls the world, or so they say..."

"Not one step further, Jasper!" shouted a strong deep voice from the back. Far behind, Hendrik appeared by guarding the King of Heliodor. When he had heard the words of Krystalinda in Snifleheim, he had found the situation rather strange. If the one who had freed the witch had had the same pendant as his, it had been nobody but Jasper. Hendrik had turned back to Heliodor and found that his friend had already left, he had explained everything to the king. Surprisingly the king said to want to verify the truth by himself and left the country soon, being guarded by Hendrik. First they had taken some decades of especially skilled soldiers together, but none of them had managed to catch up with them fighting against those powerful monsters, so finally there were only the king and Hendrik.

"Now you see it with your own eyes Sire!" said Hendrik. "We had been deceived for a long! Jasper is the one whom the darkness has entirely in its thrall!"

Jasper just flashed a frosty smile for those words.

"Confess, scoundrel! Just how cheaply did you sell your soul?! In the presence of His Majesty, prepare to face your punishment!"

Hendrik pulled out his huge sword. But then, he was hit strongly at the back of his head. It was a similar attack by the power of darkness that Eleven had gotten first, but even stronger than that, so the great sturdy hero fell down to the ground of Yggdrasil's heart. Behind him, there was King Carnelian of Heliodor, in a dark aura even stronger than Jasper's, and glared eerily.

"You have served me well, Hendrik".

"Y-Your Majesty!...What is the...meaning of this...?!" asked Hendrik by losing his consciousness more and more. He couldn't tell if it was a truth or an illusion. When the king got close to Jasper, the knight fell on his knees.

"My dear Jasper. It seems you have snared us a Luminary. Very impressive".

There was no one in Eleven's party who still had the vitality to stand up, but all of them could recognize the situation. The dark aura overflowed from the body of the king and finally left his body fall down unconsciously as a slough, and that darkness transformed to an eerie wizard which could not be called anything but the Lord of Shadows.

"It is an honor to serve you as always, Lord Mordegon!" replied Jasper, but even if he had not done it, it was still obvious for everybody that it was Mordegon. The Dark Lord looked down onto Eleven's powerlessly lying body.

"Dear Luminary! Now is the time when your power becomes mine!" claimed Mordegon and made eleven's body floating with the magical power of his wand. He aimed at his heart in order to pull out his Luminary's power.

It was then.

"No more moves, Morcant!" shouted a woman's voice from somewhere above. Hearing that name shook Mordegon so much that he let Eleven go. From one thick branch surrounding the hall around the Heart of Yggdrasil, a beautiful woman alighted. Her long purple hair was gathered at the back of her head and hang from there, she was wearing a white surplice with long yellow boots and gloves, and her light blue cloak was like angel's wings how it was floating until she landed to the ground.

"No! You can't be...!" shouted the Dark Lord with astonished face as he looked at the beautiful sage.

"You're surprised, aren't you?!" asked the girl, opening her gorgeous ruby-colored eyes that showed anger.

"Is she really...Serenica...?" asked Serena half consciously but deeply moved though she didn't know if it actually was a dream or not. Then, they heard a man's voice from the direction Eleven's party had entered.

"You really shouldn't go further, Morcant!"

It was young man coming in, wearing a blue tunic and having dark spiky hair.

"Och, it must be...!"

It was Rab who identified him first. It seemed no one but his great ancestor, the legendary Luminary. What he couldn't understand was that why he was calling Mordegon by the name of his ancient companion.

"Erdwin!" cried Mordegon. "This is just not possible! How could you be alive?!" Mordegon screamed with getting a great shock but the hero replied to him calmly.

"You're alive as well, aren't you?"

"But you...you've been killed! BY MY OWN HANDS!"

"What?!"

It was Rab whose astonishment was the biggest. The great sorcerer whose name had been bearing the highest respect in Angri-La and who had been the role model of Rab himself when he had been training there, turned out to be the same person as the Lord of Shadows who had become that by betraying and killing Erdwin.

"I don't care how many Luminaries there are", said Jasper, "But if you are in the way of my lord, you shall be buried here as well!" He stood between the Luminary and Mordegon, held his black orb up again and unleashed the power he had been received from his dark lord against the young man he knew as Erdwin. But the dark aura could never reach the Luminary, it flew away by avoiding him.

When the child Eight's memories had been sealed by the Lord of the Dragovians, that curse had been so strong that it had created a perfect immune against any other curses or dark powers thus Eight had become invulnerable even against Rapthorne's dark thorns. The dark aura of Jasper could not harm him at all.

"You mean you're the real Erdwin?!"

Eight didn't even care about Mordegon's screaming, just pulled out Erdrick's Sword.

"My turn!" said he and wielded his sword from down to slantwise up against Jasper. He could barely defend with his weapon to avoid being cut directly but the strong attack thrust him far away, even outside of the area around the Yggdrasil's heart. He fell down onto one giant leaf.

"What?! Another Sword of Light?! Then, what is that?!" cried Mordegon pointing at the sword floating in the Heart of Yggdrasil.

"If someone really wants, he can make even this sword by himself".

Eight wasn't lying with that. In fact they had made Erdrick's Sword with the Alchemy Pot, under the advice of Empyrea. He told Jessica to take care of Mordegon and ran after the thrust Jasper. Mordegon was still confusing, wondering if they had made the second Sword of Light as they had done once a long time ago. Jessica in the costume of Serenica came to him.

"Now, Morcant, show me if your magical power you're so proud of, can really exceed mine!"

"Foolish child!" muttered the Dark Lord and held his wand up and stroke his magic sphere to Jessica's. It was unimaginable how powerful they were. In fact it would be hard to find a sorcerer having stronger magical power than Jessica in the world she were living, but the other one had also been called the best sorcerer in Erdrea and had developed himself to the lord of the demons. It was also the problem for Jessica that she couldn't let those enormous magical powers crash to each other with their full volumes in the area nearby the Heart of Yggdrasil. It might have been too much even for the divine barrier protecting the tree's heart, and also there were Eleven and his companions powerlessly tired nearby. Jessica tried to lure the Lord of Shadows out of the area around Yggdrasil's heart. Mordegon could see through it but he also found that he had no advantages to choose where he wanted to fight. This girl supposed to be Serenica was a well matching opponent who didn't give those chances to him. He didn't remember about the exact abilities of the sage he had been his companion in the ancient time but he had to fight with his full power, if only to not give her his title of the best sorcerer of Erdrea. He got even excited about it. Jessica casted strong flame and ice spells against him on and on, she used even the Pink Typhoon to make him fly far away from the Heart of Yggdrasil.

"That's marvelous!" said Serena with deep impression to her sister after she had succeeded to crawl near her with the little power remaining inside her. "So that's the true power of our ancestor Serenica!"

"Yes" nodded Veronica. "But she might be..."

At the same time, Eight in Erdwin's costumes had found Jasper and showed a most remarkable swordfight against him. He didn't have to care about the attacks using the power of the darkness but Jasper had his basically excellent abilities highly increased by Mordegon, so Eight had to defend against his sword attacks with his full power. He fought with a sense like he had fought against Marcello at Neos. The former Lord High Priest had not been manipulated by Rapthorne's wand he had contrary taken advantages of its power, while this Heliodorian general had been haunted by the power of darkness by accepting Mordegon's temptation when his perverted ideas had taken over himself. But both looked similar to Eight. Jasper was fighting like a pirate, losing all the pride of a knight which showed him as a pitiable man.

"Dirty rat! Whoever you are, I won't let you get in my way!" cried Jasper. "I had been suffering for years until Lord Mordegon had appeared and appreciated my true value!"

Jasper was fighting without showing any week point to the opponent. He was basically a rarely high skilled soldier. But the other one was a hero who had saved a whole world once. As the fight took longer, Eight's superiority became more and more obvious. At the end, Jasper could only defend with his dark orb and finally even that orb was shattered into pieces by Erdrick's Sword.

"No...!This cannot be...I cannot be...defeated..."

Jasper tried to attack with the last remaining power of darkness inside him, but it was also easily bounced by Eight. Jasper fell forward onto his face.

"Alright...! Deal...the deathblow...!"

But Eight - of course - did not respond to such a request. When he recognized that his antagonist was out of action but alive, he left him and rushed to Jessica.

The fight between Jessica and Mordegon forced both to use their strongest magical spells against the other thus their lights were overflowing from inside the giant shroud of the World Tree so much that it was visible from Arboria and even Angri-La. Mordegon summoned some sinister staves that could move by themselves and cast spells as well. However, their spells were much weaker than their lord's and Jessica could easily reflect them with the spell of Bounce. Some of Eleven's companions, especially Veronica wanted to go out in order to help the legendary sage even with a seriously wounded body but others like Sylvando and Rab stopped them. The party had not enough power to fight and it would have been a nuisance to her since the she would have had to care of them too. So they stopped at the entrance to the area of Yggdrasil's heart and watched how the two highest masters of magic was fighting each other outside. When the sinister staves had been defeated, Mordegon wielded his own staff and thrust Jessica away who had been concentrating on casting the next spell. Then, he grew a new dark magical sphere from his hand that became bigger and bigger.

"You're not bad at all!" said he. "But there's no one can exceed my magical power!"

"That's my line!" shouted Jessica. She made out a magical sphere too, a sphere with the power of fire and grew it up extremely big. Her whole body was already enveloped in a red aura and her hair was pointing to the sky too. In that way, the two enormous magical spheres crashed to each other. Both tried to push the other out.

"...Damn you!" cried Mordegon exerting himself. He felt being pushed back. In the ancient era, when Serenica had been her companion, he had been better at attacking spells than her. And he also had the energy of the Dark One he had imbibed, so it was unbelievable to him to lose in that contest of magic. The former sorcerer who had become the Dark Lord just had forgotten the limitless power of the will to save someone precious.

"Aargh! So your Kafrizz exceeded my Kazam...What a shame...!"

After had been pushed away at the magical spell contest, Mordegon said it with full of mortification but Jessica laughed at him.

"Oh, darling, it was just a Frizz!"

Jessica's word shocked Mordegon even more.

"Then...what about this?!"

As Mordegon held his staff high up, a strange purple mist blew up in the area.

"Blow, Madding Cloud!" cried he. "Turn the power of creation to the power of destruction!"

The mist that the Lord of Shadows had caused was one of the most evil necromancies had ever invented in the place commonly known as the "Underworld". It was a cloud that turns to the healing and creating powers to ones that cause damage and destruction. On the branches of the Tree of Life, everything had healing and creating power, so it was the most dangerous to be dragged into that mist. Of course, it couldn't change the whole World Tree's creating energy to a destructive power, but around Jessica, there were some black branches raised to attack her.

"What the hell is this?!"

Jessica couldn't prevent all the attacks of those numerous evil branches, and finally they tied her up.

"You're right, it IS the hell itself!" laughed Mordegon. "How do you feel to be destroyed by the source of life?!"

Jessica found herself in desperate straits for the first time of this fight. The more she burned those branches by the spells of fire, the more new appeared.

"Fall into my hands!" shouted Mordegon.

Eight arrived at in that very moment. Mordegon had held up his wand to finish with his opponent, but the wand was flicked off by Eight's sword. Eight instantly cut down the branches binding Jessica up. During that time, Mordegon flew away to find his staff and the Madding Cloud started to fade away. Eight and Jessica got out of it anyway and chased Mordegon. Jessica put her staff away and took the Goddess Whip.

"It's enough!" said she in serious tone.

Eight attacked Mordegon with Erdrick's Sword that the opponent could barely defend with his staff which he had just found, and couldn't care about Jessica's whip that bound his legs. Jessica waved him at the end of her whip as it is does with a flail and threw him at the trunk of Yggdrasil with a horribly powerful swing. It was near the cave leading to its heart and it was clearly visible for the seven members of Eleven's party and Hendrik.

"Let's finish it!" said Jessica and pulled the whip still tying Mordegon again.

"Wait!" cried Eight with the purpose of attention but it was needless to say to Jessica.

" I know! Originally a whip is not a weapon! It's something used for leading others!" said she and filled her whip with her magical power. That aura took over Mordegon's body.

"NOOOOOO!"

Mordegon's body was numbed so he couldn't move at all.

"Eight, it's your turn now!"

Just with Jessica's words, Eight grabbed the hilt of Erdrick's Sword with his both hand and stuck it into Mordegon's body. The Dark Lord made up his mind to death. But Eight's sword didn't reach his core, it was stopped just before it.

"What's the matter?!" asked Mordegon. "Can't you stab it deeper?!"

Eight exactly knew how far he could get. He stopped at that point and said slowly.

"Being a Luminary..."

"What?!"

"Being a Luminary is not to take others' lives. It's to bring the light into everybody's heart. Even to the ones' who had filled with darkness the most. That's what is fitting for the Luminary!"

As Eight said so, Erdrick's Sword became enveloped in a holy light that reached Mordegon' body as well.

"What...what is that light?! It's...so hot...so warm..."

The darkness was pulled out from Mordegon's body more and more. His figure started to change too, getting close to a human's.

"Now, go, Morcant!"

Suddenly they found Chen Mui next to them and the Seer as well. But that woman's figure was visible just for a blink and at the next moment they saw a man with beard wearing a green robe. He was Morcant, the ancient great sorcerer. He floated and got close to Mordegon who was being purified.

"My foolish old body! Now is the time to unite with me again!"

Morcant and Mordegon lay upon together and finally there was only the sorcerer floating in the air, transparent like a ghost. He spoke.

"Great heroes from another world! Thank you very much for saving me at last!"

There was already Eleven and his companions nearby. King Carnelian came to his sense as well and he was held by Jade and Hendrik. The ancient sorcerer continued.

"I am Morcant, the sorcerer. Erdwin's erstwhile companion. A long, long time ago, we have succeeded to defeat the Dark One. But when Erdwin raised his sword to smite him, he talked directly to my mind. 'Kill Erdwin, and I will grant you power beyond your wildest dreams' he said. And I, foolishly let that temptation come over me and somehow finally I found myself had stabbed my best friend from his back".

It was a big shock for Eleven's party. Morcant sighed as it were still hard to tell, and then said.

"I was...jealous. Jealous about that young couple..." said he slowly. Some thought that there had been something like a "love triangle" but the next story told that it was wrong.

"From my childhood, I've been a one who was always fearing of something. Fearing of being bullied, Fearing of that something precious to me was going to be trampled on by others. So I've always wanted power as much as I could earn. But I realized that physical powers finally will decline as you get old, and I also had some talent of magic so I wanted to master that way. I've been practicing more and more, and once I realized I had gotten old without having a sound life like most of the young men have. Because of that, I had rarely have a sexual relationship and envied Erdwin and Serenica who had already been in love as teenagers".

So Morcant had not been able to stand that there had been some people around him getting the greatest happiness for a young man and woman which he had never gotten. Some elder members of Eleven's companion could catch that feeling quickly. Rab who was already an old man and Hendrik who was disquieted by the fact that he was a single man at the age of thirty-six, did not sympathize with the methods of Morcant but could feel a little empathy. Morcant kept talking while he was enveloped in some white light.

"I was so foolish. I had sworn an eternal friendship with Erdwin but I couldn't congratulate on his happiness! After I had my best friend killed, I filled myself with the power of the Dark One, and as the consequence, I became Mordegon!"

Eleven and his companions had already recognized that fact. But then, there still was the question that who the Seer had led Erik in his dream had been.

"But even then" continued Morcant "a part of me held out against the darkness. Mordegon remained in the dichotomy, he was a one with only 'body' and 'mind', without the concept of 'soul'. His soul took its own form and became the Seer. As the Seer, as the soul, the conscience of my own, I wanted to find and lead the Luminary who has the power to successfully fight against Mordegon. It was the least atonement I could do. It was pretty hard without a body although..."

"Then, it was you too who led us to this world?" asked Eight, but Morcant shook his head.

"I could feel that the gate between dimensions opened but I had no idea how and why".

So the question was still remaining about those incomprehensible body switches and how Eight and Jessica had come to Erdrea. They didn't even know if they can ever go back to their original world.

"We did it!" said a strange, high-tone childish voice. Six little creators rose up from the leaves of Yggdrasil.

"Oh, you're...!"

Jessica remembered the book they had read with Eight. The creatures here looked just the same as the one on the last page on the book, which had reacted to the window-shaped shadow that had brought them to Erdrea. But this case, there was not only a white, but a red, blue, yellow, green and purple-colored ones too.

"We are Tockles. We are watching over the flowing of the time in Erdrea as well as the other worlds" said the six. They would have been invisible for human beings except for those who had been chosen by Yggdrasil like Eleven, but this case they showed themselves on purpose.

"We live in different time from anyobody. We can read stories of many worlds and many time zones. We read the story of Erdrea which was so sad, and also wrong. That Mordegon tried to twist the destiny, destroying both the Luminary and the Dark One. We wanted to save it"

The Tockles explained it one by one. Eleven and his companions didn't know that sad future could have happened if there had not been Eight and Jessica, but some of them could imagine what would have waited after they had been defeated by Jasper.

"We looked for heroes in other worlds. Heroes like Erdwin and Serenica. A young coulpe of strong fighters who love each other.

"But we can't go to other worlds by ourselves. We found the story of Eight. We wanted you to pay attention to this world".

"So we used our powers together. We made Jessica and Veronica body switch".

As the cute creators told the story by turns, Morcant added to it.

"And you, Eight and Jessica, splendidly made it to avoid the tragedy. You are just like Erdwin and Serenica!"

"So, you are not really...?" asked Serena but all other members had already recognized that the two were not the real Erdwin and Serenica. Veronica made a face just about to say "I knew it!".

"But you don't belong to this world" continued Morcant again. "You shall go home before some irrevocable things happens!"

Eight and Jessica naturally knew it. Once they felt to help Eleven and his party until they awaken their true powers but they had to go back to the world they belonged.

"We can send your back" said one of the Tockles. They all jumped as little children feel happy.

"You can go home as you came here!"

"But first of all, listen to me!" said Morcant again. "I have little time now but I must tell you something more!"

He looked hasty at last.

"In that thing you know as 'Erdwin's Lantern' there is the body of the evil god, Calasmos bound. But his spirit is still wandering somewhere in Erdrea, collecting the power of darkness. Eleven and his companions! You must awaken your true powers before the Dark One gets his to unbind his body and unite with it! That is my final prophecy!"

The floating Morcant said so, and disappeared with a smile.

"He's gone..."

"Yeah, he should be dead for centuries!"

As the party members were talking so, Jessica approached Veronica.

"Finally...we met in real!" cried she with deep emotion. At the time, probably as a result of an unimaginable fight, her hair she had dyed in purple got its original color back so she took her original hairstyle back as well. Eight did the same since the ingredient had hardened his hair was losing its power so he put his bandana on again and took off the glass of blue eye from his eyeball. Jessica lifted up veronica and danced by hugging her strongly. Since it was a little girl, she felt like hugging her own child that made her blush as she looked at Eight. Then, the two looked how Eleven got the Sword of Light at the Heart of Yggdrasil explained the details about how they had come to Erdrea.

"So, ye've met Grand Master Pang didn'ye?" asked Rab.

"That pretty girl supposed to be the age of us but doesn't look like so at all?" asked Chen Mui back after he had found that Rab was a good partner to him to chat. He was most surprised himself about Pang. He knew that his own master, the Lord of the Dragovians had kept his young figure for centuries but it was a divine power that only some especially high ranked ones could use even among the Dragovians. He couldn't imagine how it was possible to a human being.

"But you have a good taste, Lord Robert" said he. "I guess Eleven's real grandmother is..."

"What?!" cried Rab surprisingly and blushed from head to toe, but Chen Mui still didn't know if he had surprised at his unbelievable guess or just hit the mark.

As they were talking each other pleasantly, Hendrik took King Carnelian before Eleven. First, the king apologized for what he had done under being haunted by Mordegon, then, Hendrik fell on his knees and bent his head down.

"Eleven, if you could forgive me for what I have done against you, it would be the greatest pleasure for me! I cannot atone for all them, but my joint could pay a part of my debt. Luminary! If you wish, I will be your sword, your shield, your unswerving companion!"

Eleven nodded without a word and shook hands with Hendrik. He was welcome by his companions too while Eight and Jessica felt the things turned as "it had been written".

"Now, we shall go home!" said King Carnelian. "I still can't control my body as I want..."

Actually he was able to move by his own will since sixteen years before. Her daugter held him with the general and the party went out the cave of Yggdrasil's heart. The sunlight was shining from the spaces of the numberless leaves of a tree as big as a mountain. They felt again that Yggdrasil was a divine miracle of the nature.

However, they felt a rough voice from behind.

"Wait...!"

When they turned around, they saw Jasper barely walking, falling down many times.

"You...you're still alive?!" shouted Erik and grabbed his weapon, so did some other members of the party, but soon they realized that Jasper had no more power to fight. King Carnelian walked near him and talked with a tone that kept his dignity but even then was kind.

"Jasper, you are a miserable one who had been used his soul by the Lord of Shadows. Just like me".

"No!" cried he. "Don't pity me!"

He stood up with some difficulties and wanted to claim it by gesturing strongly but fell down again.

"Kill me! Kill me right now! You will regret if you let me alive!"

Eight stood before the lying Jasper and said.

"There was someone I know said the same thing".

"Oh, yes, there was!" said Jessica too.

"But later" continued Eight "He helped us when we were in a tough situation".

As he was thinking about the event at the Altar of Wroth, he still didn't know from when Marcello had been following them.

"I will...never do such a thing!" said Jasper still resisting, but Hendrik stooped down before him.

"Jasper, please stop it! You don't need to do this anymore!"

"Don't care about me, Hendrik! Surpass me as you've always done! I can never be like you, no matter how hard I try!"

As the consequence of too much pain, Jasper finally cried out his deepest problem. Hendrik kept silent for a while, looking into his eyes and then said.

"Jasper, you spoke about surpassing me, but for me, you've always been the light that guided me. I am the one who wanted to be like you..."

As a result of those words, Jasper opened his eyes widely and finally lost his consciousness. But his last expressions showed a little happiness on his face. Hendrik carried him on his shoulder.

"I'll take him home and treat his wounds. Even if he leaves Heliodor after getting better.

"Oh dear!" said Sylvando, "Don't you think he would be in good hands under my Papi in Puerto Valor?"

Hendrik was surprised as the entertainer suddenly spoke him so friendly and then some idea came to his mind which was so shocking that he almost dropped Jasper from his shoulder.

"...It can't be!...You...Norberto!"

"Oh, nice work, Inspector Hendrik!" cried Sylvando with his usual high tension which relieved the party's mood again. Eleven and his companions left Yggdrasil with Eight, Jessica and the spirits of the lost time behind. After Veronica, who was especially cheerfully waving to Jessica left, Eleven remained for the last and looked into Eight's eyes. There was a respect in his eyes shown to the other "Luminary" who had already saved the world. Eight raised his hand like who was about to say "I'll leave it to you!".

[newpage]

8

"Wow! It was a trip even more unbelievable than the former ones wasn't it?" said Jessica after they had arrived at home in Alexandria. Alistair's armor and Empyrea's feather had taken their original shapes back as well. They found that it was just as many days later as they had spent in Erdrea. And when they read the book of the myth, the last of the story had been changed.

"It says, 'Mordegon was defeated at Yggdrasil by two mysterious heroes who were supposed to be Erdwin and Serenica'!" read Jessica from the final part.

"I thought they don't write like 'heroes from another world'" said Eight. In fact he felt a little relieved about that their existence didn't influence another dimension too much. As they read the next part, they found that Hendrik had joined the party, Eleven had awakened his true power of the Luminary by rescuing their parents' spirits from the nightmare, Sylvando had been reconciled with his father and had gotten some new hidden techniques with Hendrik, and all the other party members had been awakened their highest abilities by the Watchers living above the sky.

After that, when Calasmos, the Dark One had revived as well, Jasper, who had once left Heliodor as expected, came back and fought with Eleven's party and saved the world. Then, Eleven and his companions went to the Tower of Lost Time where Serenica had been living in a form of the Timekeeper. Eleven brought her back to her original form with the power of the Luminary and she went back to the time to meet Erdwin again by borrowing the Sword of Light and breaking the Time's Sphere. That was what the myth was telling.

"Look this!" pointed Jessica at a smiling picture of Veronica. "Doesn't it seem she's saying 'Thank you' to us?"

After the end of the text, Veronica on the picture was smiling at not to her companions but at the readers. It could have been the gratitude to Eight and Jessica. But there were also some pages left telling what had happened to Erdwin and Serenica afterwards. There was a picture about their reuniting placed in a forest.

"So then, they became happy with each other too!" said Jessica smilingly. Both Eight and she had already found much resemblances in that couple with themselves and were honestly happy knowing that they had found each other again too. But Eight was still curious about something.

"Wait, in that case, it was completely useless what we've done in Erdrea"

Thinking about it strictly, if Erdwin and Serenica had reunited in the past, they must have had prevented the betrayal of Morcant so he could never have become Mordegon, and they had completely destroyed Calasmos as well, then Eleven and his companions' fight must have never had happened.

"I don't think so" said Jessica, "there's still a sequel here!".

On the next page it was told that Erdwin had been killed by his friend anyway but probably because Yggdrasil had protected him, he had been allowed to live in a mystical forest between different dimensions. After Serenica had broken the Time's Sphere she had reached that forest and had reunited with Erdwin there. The two had not been able to go back to Erdrea where Erdwin had been already dead but had reached out of the forest between the dimensions finding a gate of another world where they had settled down. On the last page there was nothing specific written about what had happened after, but Eight and Jessica could see the picture of a woman had just finished reading a book about Eleven's story and waking up her child who had to go to meet the king on his sixteenth birthday.

"Oh, isn't that the same as in a world where Empyrea was talking about as her birthplace?" asked Jessica.

"Yeah...the hero called Erdrick..." realized Eight. The names of "Erdrick", "Erdwin" and "Erdrea". Erdwin and Serenica had probably written down the story of Erdrea in a different world. And in that world, there had also a new legend begun.

"It's much confusing, but anyway, I think we could have a good experience again with this adventure!" said Eight satisfyingly.

"Yes! If there's something certain, it's that!" agreed Jessica and put her hand as Serenica was putting her hand to Erdwin's on the picture. They had no Luminary's marks on their hands, but for a moment, it seemed like the emblem of the Dragovians of which blood was definitely flowing in Eight, appeared on the hands of both.

Fin.

Afterword

Thank you for reading! This was originally written in Japanese, released as a fan book at the Square Enix fan event in February, 2018, Tokyo, and my first try of translating my own Dragon Quest fan-fiction novels to English. In spite of the fact that I'm earning my living mostly from translations (Professional at Japanese and Hungarian though) I've had no opportunity to write something called "novel" in English until now. Therefore I'm sure that some native English speakers found lots of the expressions unnatural that I want to apologize about but even then I hope that the meaning of the story reached those as well.

I'm a Hungarian living in Japan since when I was ten years old and have been a big fan of the Dragon Quest series for about a quarter of a century. The reason I've started to write fan fictions about it (in Japanese) was the release of the Play Station 2 version of DQ8 at the end of 2004, which caused me a shock with its conclusion, betraying the rules of the series that was "the hero is the player himself", forcing me to fall in love with the princess instead of Jessica. So I wanted to express my feelings about it and also build my own DQ8 world in which my hero loves Jessica and I've started to create fan fiction novels. Needless to say how happy I was when the 3DS version of the game came out with an ending I could make true what I had only been dreaming about for ten years...

When I wrote the original version of this one about a year ago, I was giving myself entirely up to DQ11 which was released in the summer of 2017 in Japan. So I decided to put my Eight and Jessica to the story of DQ11. In this game, the most impressive event that gave me the biggest shock was definitely the one at Yggdrasil with Mordegon and even during the walkthrough I was thinking about a hero who can save that situation. Since the time I was a little kid, every time I saw a sad scene in a fiction I always wanted a hero who can turn everything alright, often fantasized that I was that one. In DQ11 I can say the hero himself can do that after the first ending by going back to the past, but in this story, Eight and Jessica take that role and go to Erdrea to prevent the tragedy at Yggdrasil. When I was thinking about how to make them recognize the existence of Erdrea, I decided to use some elements from the story of "Your Name"(Kimi-no Na-wa) that was still in the center of people's interest in 2017. I'm impressed with that movie as well and it had the script of "saving someone from a big disaster going to happen in a unique way", so I found perfect to use it in my story. Unlike the movie, Jessica and Veronica don't forget what happened after the body switches and they live in completely different worlds, but even before it, I was always wondering if something we consider as "a fiction" could be real world in another dimension where OUR WORLD might be considered as a fiction, people who think they "create" fictional worlds ad characters might merely recognize the existence of some REAL parallel worlds and people living there. I connected the worlds of DQ8 and DQ11 that way.

When Eight and Jessica read the story of Erdrea, I tried to sketch like users really play DQ11. The creators purposely put many elements in the game resembling to the other DQ games' scenes and my Eight and Jessica find those as well. Actually it's clear for me if the love between Irwin and Eleanor is a resemblance to Eight and Medea, the couple of Erdwin and Serenica have lots in common with Eight and Jessica. What Eight feels in this story when he reads about Irwin and Eleanor is what I felt when I played DQ8. For Medea, I just want to protect her from an asshole like Charmles but it doesn't mean I fell in love with her, while Angelo's love approaching to Jessica clearly aroused my rivalry and made me recognize how much I fell in love with her.

The way Eight and Jessica go to Erdrea was my original idea. When I translated this, Tickington was not in the English version yet (I edited that part later). I skipped it even in the original version of this story because it would have been even longer. Although I used some features only in the 3DS version of the game (The books change personalities like in DQ3 and that Jessica gets the Goddess Whip are both what you can see in the 3DS version of DQ11 at the event placed in DQ8's Chateau Felix). It was also hard to translate spell make them go to Erdrea, in the original I used the password of a hiragana anagram that you can get after defeating Calasmos in the original ("Rozeshinou-yazajirichitota-ayushiiha-manohe" anagram of "Rotozetashia-no yuusha, iza, hajimari-no chi-(h)e!" meaning, "Luminary of Erdrea, now is the time to go to the beginning place!"). I don't know how it sounds in the English Nintendo Switch version.

Like many of my fan-fictions, I put some features of Hungarian folk tales and elements of astrology that mostly Morcant talks about in this story. In the original DQ11, Yggdrasil is literally called the "Tree of Life"(Inochi-no Taiju) and in Hungary, the Milky Way used to be called so. The scene when Eight and Jessica save the Hybird at the summit of Mount Pang-Lai comes from a story appears in many of Hungarian folk tales, including the teaching that "you have to dedicate your life in order to help others, even if it's your mortal foe". That "mortal foe" is usually described as a giant bird that is "dividing the light and the darkness, moving its head between them". It's an ancient Scythian emblem that had been misunderstood by the Habsburgs as a "double-headed eagle" and it's my ironic reference to that in the story. I used the Hybird (Purgatory Bird) from DQ5 which appears in the 3DS version of DQ11 as well.

The name of Lap Top, the chancellor of Phnom Nonh possessed by Mordegon is a pun of Pol Pot. The book that Serena had read about the gatekeepers of Fairyland comes from a Hungarian epic poem "János Vitéz"("John the Valiant" or "Sir John the Hero", depends on translations). Rab is said to be the "youngest of the three brothers" in one of the texts you see during the loading time in the PS4 version (I don't know if it's remained in the English one). That rule of three is also a common element of a fairy tale but in Hungary it's said that it's a symbol of one person who fails twice and makes it by the third time, learning from his own failures. Since there's no other reference to Rab's elder brothers in the story, I thought it was a symbol like that (actually it IS told that Rab had gone through a lot of failures in Angri-La).

The climax at Yggdrasil was the first scene I made up in my mind and it was the hard part to connect the story to that. What Jessica says about her spell ("it's not a Kafrizz, just a Frizz") is a reference to the words of Vearn in "Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai", though the English translations of the spell names are probably different.

I made Mordegon use the Madding Cloud at last since it's his most dangerous skill in the game. However, in my fan-fiction stories, I've always felt strange to describe healing spells work immediately like in the game, in a case of a serious wound, even using Fullheal, it needs to rest in bed for a couple of days. So I changed the effect of the madding Cloud a little bit, from reversing the effect of the healing techniques to turn the power of healing and creating to destructing powers, so change some of Yggdrasil's branches to something like writhing roots of Malign vine in DQ7. Finally not killing Mordegon but purifying him is the teaching you can see a lot in both Hungarian fairy tales and Japanese animes. Someone called the "Luminary" must be the one not to defeat or invade but the one to heal and help others. What Eight says what is fitting for the Luminary is the antithesis of what Mordegon says in the game about the Sword of Light. In the game they don't tell too much why Morcant had fallen to the dark side so I put my own feelings in. I don't mean the jealousy about young couples but the hunger for power. The situation of Jasper resembles Marcello a lot and there are so many female fans of him in Japan that I decided to rescue him and make him finally become the ninth member of the party.

As I mentioned before, Erdwin and Serenica (besides they're based on the male hero and the female sage of DQ3) have a lot in common with Eight and Jessica and it became my favorite couple in DQ11 but it was really hard to make a consistent story after Serenica went back to the past. So I finally concluded as they'd disappeared from Erdrea and settled down in the world of DQ3, Aliahan and become the ancestors of Ortega and Erdrick. Anyway, it is a fan-fiction which is definitely not "canon", just one idea about the connections between DQ3 and DQ11.

About the Early Modern English that the characters of the "age of heroes" use in the English translation, was both too hard to find how to write correct dialogues and felt unnecessary anyway. Unlike our real world, in the world of DQ, techniques don't change for centuries or even for millenniums, so the language doesn't need to change either. About the other characters' particular ways of speaking, I've tried to consist with the English texts (especially Rab's Scottish dialect was difficult) but I still feel strange about them. After all, Dragon Quest is a fictional world...

Finally, I'd like to thank you again for reading!

KKristof100


End file.
